Gray Wolves on the Move: Colorado Wildlife Authorities Release Latest GPS Tracking Data | wildlife

Two gray wolves were heading west through Colorado last month, according to the latest tracking data released by state wildlife officials.

The latest data from the wolves' GPS tracking collars showed the two wolves moving from western Routt County to eastern Moffat County, Colorado Parks and Wildlife said in a news release.

Every month, CPW releases an updated map showing collared wolf movements over the past 30 days. The map released Wednesday showed the 12 collared wolves had covered large areas of the state, including Jackson, Larimer, Grand and Summit counties in the east and Eagle, Routt, Garfield, Rio Blanco and Moffat counties in the west.

“CPW continues to work with ranchers to provide conflict mitigation techniques and will continue to conduct outreach/education in areas where wolves are likely to be present,” CPW said in the release.

The data is compiled by recording the wolves' location every four hours and is transmitted to state biologists after four locations are recorded.

CPW said the data was useful for seeing where the wolves were, but staff could not say exactly where the wolves were at any time.

The data is then displayed on a map showing which watersheds the wolves have been in over the past 30 days.

“Watersheds are the appropriate mapping unit to display information on wolf activity because wolves are much more likely to use geographic features than political boundaries to influence their distribution,” CPW said.

Wildlife officials said they reserve the right to “buffer” wolves' locations on the map if doing so endangers the wolves' safety.

CPW said the map's accuracy will decrease over time as the animals breed in the wild and other uncollared wolves may move into the area from other states.

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