Welcome to the Colorado Wolf Information Project (CWIP) blog!
Welcome to the Colorado Wolf Information Project (CWIP) blog! My name is Raymond, and I am the CWIP director. I co-founded CWIP with the goals of (1) making available to the public scientific information about wolves and their restoration to the State of Colorado, (2) engaging policymakers at the federal and state level concerning wolf management and wolf-livestock conflict, and (3) conducting scientific research into wolf behavior and wolf-livestock conflict. Because wolves only recently returned to Colorado--we now have about 30 wolves in the wild--research efforts into wolf-livestock conflict are in the infancy stage. With the passage of time, and as the wolf population increases and packs form and establish defined territories, more systematic study of wolf-livestock conflict in the state will become possible.
Our interest in wolf-livestock conflict doesn't stop at the Colorado borders, however, and we are actively engaged in studies of conflict in Idaho and Montana, states with established wolf populations. Our study of Idaho is progressing well, and we expect to have all data entry and analysis completed by Summer 2025, with our findings being published here (and hopefully elsewhere) by summer's end.
For both Idaho and Montana, CWIP is conducting novel longitudinal studies of wolf-livestock conflict patterns using data from wolf depredation investigations conducted by Wildlife Services. Our initial Idaho study covers a ten-year period, from 2014 through 2024. Our methodology allows for the geospatial analysis of wolf-livestock conflict patterns over time, which can aid in identifying localized geographic areas where wolf-livestock conflict is high and persistent, and therefore where there is greater need for nonlethal conflict mitigation efforts. We are also exploring the use of advanced mapping technologies to aid in the analysis and visual display of our research findings.
The preliminary results from our Idaho study are intriguing in several ways. First, we are seeing a higher-than-expected percentage of unconsumed livestock carcasses. We are also seeing a higher-than-expected number of depredation events involving adult cows occurring on private land. Additionally, a handful of Game Management Units (GMU) account for an unexpectedly high percentage of depredation events. In the coming months, as we complete our data entry and preliminary analyses, we will be focusing our attention on those GMUs with high levels of conflict.
