An electronic call drew the canine in.
The recorded sounds of a pronghorn in distress blared from a point some 600 yards north of the Colorado-Wyoming state line. It was a Saturday in May 2019, and the hunters at first thought they were looking at a coyote.
Then the animal emerged further from the brush. They saw it had a “swooped down tail” and an “oversized head.”
The men playing the distress call knew what this was.
Wolf.
When the gray lobo came within 243 yards, a rifle erupted. The shot from the 7 mm Shooting Times Westerner killed the lone male, a member of the first wolf pack documented in the state of Colorado since the 1940s.
“It was no mistaken shooting,” the shooter told WyoFile. “We knew what it was. And when we saw it, we wanted it.”
The following year three more wolves were shot and killed in Wyoming within two miles of the state line, where the pack set up a home range straddling Moffat and Sweetwater counties. One hunter killed an interstate wolf from that founding pack mere feet from the gate separating the two states.
The trend continued in north-central Colorado, after the second modern-day wolf pack in the Centennial State was documented: At least four wolves from the North Park Pack would die at the hands of hunters after straying north across the state line. In the wake of the predictable public acrimony, Wyoming officials have shut down communications about wolf killings, citing state statute.
Now, all eyes are on Colorado’s impending wolf reintroduction: a voter-initiated biological intervention that will import animals from Oregon before the end of the year. But until now, the details of the killings, which help explain why wolves have not naturally taken hold in Colorado, have not been made public.
WyoFile acquired documents tied to the killings of three wolves from Colorado’s first modern-day wolf pack through a Freedom of Information Act request that netted U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service law enforcement investigation reports. Through those partly redacted reports WyoFile was able to contact one man, a hunting outfitter, who pulled the trigger on the first wolf and was present when another hunter — his son — shot and killed two others. The man would only be interviewed on the condition of anonymity, fearful he’d be harassed and threatened for speaking publicly about the wolf killings. WyoFile granted that request, believing his account would provide a perspective that our readers couldn’t access otherwise; knowing that he is a private citizen who, according to the federal investigation, has committed no crimes and has no obligation to talk; and recognizing that his fear of harassment is not unwarranted.
Paper trail
On that day in May 2019, the northwest Colorado resident was actually hunting black bear, he said. Baiting bears is legal in Wyoming, but not Colorado, so the outfitter had for years chosen to hunt north of the state line in Sweetwater County. The man knew that it was legal to kill any wolf, at any time, by any method without license, tag or permission in that reach of far southern Wyoming.
By killing one lobo, the man learned firsthand that wolves were in the area nine months before Colorado Parks and Wildlife announced — citing DNA evidence from scat — that a wolf pack had traveled into Moffat County. It was the first wolf pack confirmed in Colorado in over 80 years, the state agency declared in a press release. It’s unknown where the pack came from.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife officials, who did not respond to an interview request for this story, reminded the public in that 2020 press release that wolves are protected by the Endangered Species Act in the state. Killing one, the agency noted, can result in a $100,000 fine and a year in prison. One state to the north, the situation is much different. Although wolves are managed as “trophy game” and subject to rules and regulations in far northwestern Wyoming, the remainder of the state is part of the so-called “predator zone.” There, no license is necessary and virtually anything goes.
Wyoming’s insistence on an unregulated predator zone prompted litigation that slowed the state from gaining jurisdiction over its own wolves. But the controversial management approach prevailed, and it’s been blamed for Colorado’s lack of a functional wolf population nearly three decades after the native canines were reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park.
After killing the first wolf in May 2019, the outfitter and two of his sons made a concerted effort to pursue wolves north of the state line for the remainder of the year. Five more times that year, he said, they ran electronic predator calls in the area, drawing in mountain lions, bobcats, coyotes and other species — but no more wolves, he said.
The outfitter, who’s opposed to wolf reintroduction, did not put some special emphasis on targeting the pack near the state line because of their historical significance to Colorado. Rather, his interest in wolf hunting the area was more pragmatic, he said.
“We’ve talked about getting a license up in the Yellowstone area and hunting them there,” the man told WyoFile. “When we found them close to home — because we don’t make a lot of money — it was a big deal to us to be able to hunt something like that without it costing a fortune.”
The following year the family kept on gunning for wolves. Again, the tactics they used for hunting black bears worked.
On May 5, 2020, the outfitter’s son was in “almost the exact same spot” where his dad killed a wolf the year before when he drew in a canine with audio of a distressed cow elk. This time, the wolf approached from behind and came within 75 yards. The son fired his 22 Creedmoor rifle, according to interviews conducted by agents investigating whether the reported Wyoming wolf killings hadn’t actually happened across the line in Colorado.
Two more wolves down
After a fatal shot rang out, the father and son — who were hunting together — heard howling off to the west. They decided to wait until the next day to pursue the others. The federal investigation describes what happened that next day, May 6, 2020.
The outfitter and his son had been trying to lure the wolves in with more electronic calling, but gave up. They were walking from Wyoming back to their side-by-side ATV, which was parked “several hundred yards” into Colorado. While passing through a gate marking the state line, they saw a wolf standing in the road about 200 yards behind them in Wyoming.
“The one fucking wolf was behind us, wondering what we were, walking up the road, so [I] turned around and dumped him,” one of the hunters told Fish and Wildlife Service special agents in a telephone interview.
The agents’ summary of their investigative interviews shows that the wolf kill wasn’t so straightforward. One of the men took an “offhand shot” — a term for a standing shot taken without additional stabilizing support — at the lone canine and missed. They followed, then took a second shot, with one hunter using the other’s shoulder as a gun rest. That second shot killed the wolf.
During the investigative interviews, a special agent asked one of the men, “How far on the north side of the gate (Wyoming side) were you?”
According to an interview summary, the man hesitated for “eight seconds.” Then he replied: “Umm … shit, I wish I could remember how far down that road.”
Right on the boundary
At another point in an interview, the agent asked one of the hunters if he was sure he was in Wyoming when he shot at the wolf. The man hesitated for “seven seconds,” then stated, “I’m pretty sure.”
During an interview about the third wolf shooting, near the gate on May 6, 2020, one of the hunters became “agitated and argumentative.” He told agents he didn’t expect to be grilled over something like shooting across state lines.
As the interview concluded, one of the men told an agent: “All I can say is, expect more wolves to die over there because [name redacted] hasn’t shot one and we are going back over there this winter. We are going on the Wyoming side.”
And they did.
“We actually had a couple other chances, and messed them up,” the outfitter told WyoFile. “They were too far away and wouldn’t come any closer.”
Redaction of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s investigation makes it unclear who killed a fourth wolf on April 11, 2020. That animal, a female, was killed slightly farther into Wyoming, roughly 1.5 miles from the state line, according to maps in the report.
The outfitter who spoke to WyoFile said he was aware of the fourth wolf’s demise.
“It was in some cattle,” he said.
Federal investigators also received a report on June 11, 2020 of two additional wolves killed in Colorado, allegedly “shot in the guts” near Browns Park National Wildlife Refuge. That September, they acted on a search warrant of a Moffat County residence, but didn’t find any wolf-related items. An interview at the time failed to turn up any new information about the alleged Colorado wolf shootings, documents show.
Law enforcement investigators also did not find any evidence of illegal activity related to the outfitter or his son hunting the three wolves near the border in 2019 and 2020.
Cleared of poaching
On June 30, 2020, a Colorado Parks and Wildlife officer and two federal special agents visited all three wolf kill sites in Wyoming. They confirmed their positions, and the reported kill sites, by matching trees with trees they could see in the background of photos one of the wolf hunters posted on Facebook.
The investigation began on a Colorado biologist’s suspicion that one of the wolves reportedly killed in Wyoming had actually been killed south of the state line. When the biologist inquired with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, the agency “refused to share” wolf harvest information.
Once the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service got involved, Wyoming did turn over wolf harvest records for four animals killed near the state line. Although there are few rules and licenses aren’t necessary, wolves killed in the predator zone must be reported within 10 days. The outfitter and his son both reported their kills within three days or less.
Game and Fish also obtained DNA samples from the animals, according to large carnivore supervisor Dan Thompson. The samples, however, were not analyzed in a way that provides any insight as to where the short-lived wolf pack in northwest Colorado and southwest Wyoming originated, he said.
The outfitter told WyoFile that a special agent told him the investigation wasn’t going anywhere early on in 2020.
“He called me like a week later and said, ‘You’ve been cleared of everything,’” the man told WyoFile. “He said, ‘Don’t worry about it.’”
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, however, didn’t formally close the investigation until February 2023, which explains why the documents haven’t been made available through the Freedom of Information Act until recently.
The public and media were left to speculate about what exactly happened.
The Denver Post reported on the rumored incidents in September 2020, but at the time Colorado Parks and Wildlife officials drew no connection between the deaths and the pack verified in Moffat County earlier in the year. By September 2021, Colorado Public Radio reported there was probably only one wolf remaining in far northwest Colorado.
What became of the three historic wolves shot down less than a half-mile from the state line?
The outfitter told WyoFile that they were skinned and their hides were tanned. He’s held onto the trophies even though, having been killed in the spring, their thick winter coats were “slipping.”
They hang in the corner of one of his sons’ old bedrooms, used now only for storage.
Correction: A previous version of this story included a photograph with the caption “This photo of a person with a black wolf killed near the Wyoming-Colorado border was included in a federal law enforcement investigation report. (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service)” The photo has been removed because, though it was included in the official U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service investigation report, the wolf had actually been killed hundreds of miles away near Thermopolis. — Ed.
What kind of person actually gets a kick out of killing magnificent wild animals? For what? These two men – one family – personally responsible for killing all these wolves. They should be ashamed of themselves. But what goes around comes around.
There should be one day a month when the wolves get free range at the hunters. Even up the score. Just my frame of thought
So I’m not a wolf fan , but I can’t help but feel sorry for them because I think they have bee set up for failure, and I think the wolf intro along with the ballot to stop mountain lion hunting has a deeper agenda. I and a lot of other people believe. It is a about eventually ending big game hunting in the state of co and then going after peoples guns, it’s a round about way but it fits the liberal agenda for sure
Sir, you don’t seem to know much about the “liberal agenda”. Suffice to say that we don’t want to take away your widdle bang bang guns.
— Thanks, Mike Koshmrl and WyoFile, for this thorough research and report.
— Mike’s story seems fair, complete, and respectful to all involved, to me. The headline is a bit dramatic, but the story avoids that. Folks have strong views on hunting in general, and hunting large beautiful predators in particular. That shows in the comments. There is room for us to respect those differences. Humans and wolves have a very long history together. It’s complicated, and likely to stay complicated.
— Jean and I woke up one morning, camped on the Barren Grounds in northern Canada 300 miles from anybody, to the sound of a wolf ten feet from our tent. He was gnawing one of our canoe paddles – the biggest stick for miles around, but we did need that paddle. We had heard all the biologists’ reports that wolves don’t attack humans – but we weren’t sure that wolf had been told. It gets your attention. All ended well, as it did on a dozen other wolf encounters we had in the North. But I can understand why a person in the wild might not be sure.
–The Federal Animal Damage Control Act extermination program (now renamed “Wildlife Services”) is a much greater threat to wolves, coyotes, and other critters than individual riflemen. Taxpayer-funded, this program reported 64,000 coyotes killed in 2021.
— Canines reproduce pretty effectively, much better than grizzlies. Yes, the wolves will expand their range until they run into a barrier – hopefully not M-44 cyanide getters (which BLM just discontinued for the time being). Learning what the boundaries are going to be, and living with these beautiful animals, not exterminating them, is an unfinished project. We can do this.
No need to go to the Colorado border. Wyoming dog(wolf) pounds have to put them down. Maybe they would let you do it for sport?
These wolf deaths were from 3 and 4 years ago. What’s most interesting about this article isn’t that these hunters targeted, hated and killed wolves. That’s happening all the time in WY, predator and trophy zone. But how buttoned up Wyoming G&F is, not sharing info that should be in the public domain (not hunter names, but the incident reports) and refusing to share with their neighboring state. Thanks to the author for making these reports public, which should have been done by WGF
If the state of Wisconsin can shoot over 100 of them and not make a dent in the population a few in western states won’t dent Wolf pack growth. Don’t worry soon there will be many more to kill everything that moves including dogs, stock, game and maybe humans.
Why is it always the people who live in cities who want wolves released far from them? The people who will have to live near wolves don’t want it. I will believe it is true environmentalism and love for animals, when they clamor for wolves and grizzlies to be released near them in the cities. Otherwise it is just “woke” posing so that they can feel superior to other people.
Loophole – someone is doing something legal I don’t like…
I live in Colorado, and I hunt elk, deer, pronghorn, and moose when I can get the tag. A basic tenant to hunting is the concept of Fair chase. In Colorado, salt, licks and bait are only used by losers. A Pronghorn in distress call is unethical. Seems clear they were out for coyote and they should’ve stuck to that. Previous commentor wrote that there is no room for wolves in the lower 48. I think there’s no room for him in the lower 48. Wolves were here long before we were.
All I can think of the hunters that kill these animals is that they are pathetic lowlife losers.
How exactly do you think predator hunts happen if not with calls and bait? There’s a reason our ancestors exterminated anything that would eat people and livestock.
Meh, lighten up, man. We’ve always had wolves-just never packs of Canadian Grey Wolves. And they’ve been a fantastic success, some would say. But most of us don’t care for the Canadian Grey Wolves. Despite all the claims of ecobalance they brought, it’s not true, provable, measurable, or even predictable. In fact, it’s been a disaster. Elk hunters in Idaho have given up hunting the forests because the elk have gone silent. Moose along the thrust belt have been decimated, the Jackson herd is a fraction of what it used to be, and ranchers have been having plenty of problems. So before you go and start casting disparaging comments about guys who like to hunt Wolves, bear in mind that they 1) are an invasive species, 2) don’t belong in the lower 48. We could probably catch a few dozen for you though. They would have a lot to chose from in say Denver, or Estas Park. You could see nature at work. It would be a great outing for the whole family to watch Wolves kill your elk and homeless.
Totally agree. This reflects the reality of . En who think they can control whatever they want. Sorry. But they need prosecuted.
Thank you Wyoming
When the wolves where introduced into Wyoming they stated that would be only a certain number. The wolves didn’t agree to that number. They have exceeded that number and ranged outside the area agree upon. They will do the same in Colorado. The elk and deer population is at a all time low in Wyoming. It will happen in Colorado. The wolves have no place in the lower 48 states.
The wolves were here before cows and sheep.
So was the Sabre toothed tiger. Can I stick one in your yard?
Is this really ‘hunting’? The use of lures, calls, ATV’s sounds more like an ambush. Being able to shoot a predator is for the protection of livestock, not for blood sport.
Dennis Stickley
Scottish Highlands
It’s a form of hunting. Just like trawling is a form of fishing. I noticed that Scotland and Ireland and for sure England are all pretty much fresh out of Wolves. Would you like some?
The killing of Colorados wolfs need to stop, other wise the hunters on the size of Wyoming borders will eventually lead the wolfs to extinction.The Colorado fish and game need to setup hidden cameras along the borders of were this is taking place on a regular basis and they need to be ready to prosecute the illegal hunters and poachers and take away there hunting licenses for 9 years and if there cot killing again then put them in jail for maximum of 5 years, and that will give them time to think about what they are doing and why they are killing the wolfs . They also need to watch a movie on how important the world is to the ecosystem.
If we did not have wolfs and Coyotes there would be so many rodents and rabbits that can destroy crops if there is no control in the ecosystem and they also balance out the deer and Elk population . As far as I’m concerned animal life is precious and beautiful and necessary for the ecosystem , for without them and trees this planet would be dead .
I say well done to the the hunters attempting to control this left wing idiocy. I can only hope that this reintroduction has failed within a short amount of time. Placing them in areas that are packed with hunters helps.
To the very sensitive folks in the comments: I think the story was well written, without emotion or bias. Your outrageous reaction(s), that this is somehow a propaganda piece, is very telling. It’s clear that you understand and identify the actions of these “hunters” as unsavory, so you’re quick to attempt to discredit the man who wrote this piece.
In my experience, rural conservative folks are willing to discredit science all day long in the context of their religion, but as soon as they need a crutch to justify their unethical hunting practices they’re quick to cite science, or “conservation”, as their excuse.
Here’s the bottom line: The wolves deserve a seat at the table. Period. Secondly, killing animals just to get your jollies off is unethical, and it’s a terrible look for all of us when non-hunters witness this kind of behavior. I’ve hunted my whole life and the first thing my dad taught me was that if you kill it, you eat it.
Well written, thank you.
Spot on Zach.
this is sick. takes a brave brave person to use artificial means to lure an animal within killing range. Then killing an animal for his “wall” art or whatever…Sick.
Sickening and disgusting! The wanton killing of these highly intelligent, beautiful animals, for the sake of just killing, and trophy hunting is despicable. If they think it makes them more manly, it’s quite the opposite. They are cowards, and their only way of pretending to show their machismo is by killing a defenseless animal. With a high-powered rifle. They have no right to do this and are the lowest form of human existence. Sadly, their kids will learn the same horrible behavior.
The style and language used in this article is clearly meant to produce outrage, to portray anyone questioning or opposing wolf reintroduction to be equally as much a low life as the folks killing the wolves are judged to be. It is not a news article, it is propaganda laying the groundwork for the next phase of this in Colorado. It was mentioned that these wolves showed up all of a sudden after 80 years, which was strangely like what happened in Wyoming around the outskirts of the “area” where they were “reintroduced” about the time they were getting ready to do it- people were seeing wolves being turned out of horse trailers hundreds of miles from where the proposed releases were to happen before the releases. It was like when they decided to introduce wild sheep on Sweetwater, and all of a sudden, we were having sheep turn up out of the blue where the natives had never seen them before. Amazing coincidences. This is how the game works, and this site is helping to steer public opinion for them.
You are entitled to your opinions. Using factuality would be a plus if you expect the rest of us to respect your opinion.
Oh by the way , the North American native Grey Wolf is a positive force of nature, besides being a better hunter than you or me.
Thank you for granting me the entitlement to my opinions. I live out in the sagebrush where these things actually happen, and what I observe there tends to be factual, that is, what actually is. When relativism takes over, then everyone has their own set of “facts” , so there is really no use in commenting here anyway because you have your facts and can’t even pretend to consider any other point of view. If all else fails, attack someone’s perceived “religiosity” if that even had anything to do with the issue, or if your opponent even has a religious faith. Unbelievable, well, not really.
Nathan nailed it, it’s how we roll up here it’s legal hunting, get over it!
Good article Mike it needed to be said. I’d like to remind everyone that Wyoming’s wolf management program is working as intended and is a model for the other states. The reason its working so well is that wolves – and grizzly bears – need large tracts of Federal land for habitat and NW Wyoming provides unbroken habitat consisting of millions of acres; that being, Yellowstone, the wilderness areas adjacent to Yellowstone and the national forests such as the Shoshone and Bridger-Teton. The total acreage must be well over 5,000,000 acres available for wolf habitat. Anytime there is mixed land ownership, the conflicts between apex predators and humans becomes a major issue. Colorado must be realistic and prepare for the conflict which reintroduction will create. These apex predators need A LOT OF HABITAT and there’s only a few places in the lower 50 which have unbroken Federal land in the millions of acres.
The people that are killing the wolves have absolutely no right to do this and are cowards. The need to be punished for this. Wyoming needs to be a good neighbor and get involved with this tragedy. No person has the right to eliminate any creature due to their own personal hatred. These killers do not speak for me.
I’m sickened by the disregard for rulings, boundaries, and humane treatment. And his children have now been taught the same.
Why is the state wasting $10 million on a shooting gallery for the likes of these insecure, bloodthirsty “shooters”?
The “lawful” abuse of wildlife continues in Wyoming. The most sadistic elements in human society can destroy wildlife for passing pleasure, without purpose, and without remorse. Camo-clad cowardice. American taxpayers waste billions of dollars subsidizing public lands cattle ranching. Wolves are native to both Wyoming and Colorado and they belong on the landscape. Domestic cattle are poorly suited to life on the range. They die by the droves of harsh weather, birthing complications, and respiratory disease. But wolves are easy to blame.
Charles Fox- these wolves are NOT a native species. They were Canadian. Lobos introduced into the United States.
Time for a history lesson. In the mid-19th century before the extermination began, the were north of 450,000 Grey Wolves in western North America – both Canada and the USA. ( This number is derived from mitochondrial DNA analysis of wolf pelts and skulls taken in the mid 1800’s and preserved. It is accurate ). The Grey Wolves western of Canada and western USA are the same animal…genus Canis specie lupus. No difference . Saying that the wolves reintroduced into the USA from Canada in 1995 were ” Canadian Lobos” does a disservice to the wolves, the scientists, the wildlife managers, and everyone else. It also fully reveals your utter ignorance on the topic.
That is unfortunately is a too common faux belief . I will stop short of calling it Barstool Biology.
Well said, sir, but what you are stating is based on the scientific derived truths of wildlife biology. Such things are frowned upon here on the Planet of Wyoming.
Just because they’re ebola, rabies, cholera, HIV, smallpox, bubonic plague, yellow fever, anthrax, covid etc doesn’t make them any less a species deserving an equal ecological niche on this planet.
Use of electronic lures, garbage for bait, high-powered rifles with scopes. Dead wolves and bears. Homo stupidus heroism.
Historic Colorado Wolves? They are in Wyoming. Historically they are Canadian Wolves. This reporting is obviously slanted to the writers opinion, the facts are not clearly stated.
WyoFile is going to be marked “Junk” as it obviously is!
These wolves are a lot more native than you are.
Actually they are not Colorado, Wyoming, or Canadian wolves, but Gray Wolves. Before being eradicated in most of their range they lived from Canada throughout the western United States south into Mexico, the northern part of the Mid-West, and the eastern United States except the Deep South (former Red Wolf habitat). The fact that large numbers of people do not believe that the Gray Wolf should exist in any of its former range simply shows that Homo Sapiens is the most despicable creature on the planet. Made in the image of god? Uncheck that box.
In these cases, the hunters were using electronic baiting that resulted in killing of wolves that were hunting wild prey–not cattle or sheep.
The new journalistic “Guy Noir” of wolf hysteria is born, but where was the beautiful, mysterious woman?
Shouldn’t the title have read: “How “Colorado” shooters lured historic Colorado wolves to their deaths in Wyoming.” Sounds like a Colorado problem, not Wyoming’s. nice try.
Thank you for exposing the callous inhumanity of Wyoming’s wolf hunters. This is what we fight to prevent happening in Colorado. We stand strong for wolves and all things wild so that they can live a life free from human persecution.
Thanks to you and all the other uninformed Front Range voters in Colorado who think wildlife management should be conducted by the ballot box, legal hunters in southern Wyoming will continue to have successful hunts when wolves stray north across the border.
The hides hang in the storage room. They’re no good anyway because their hair is slipping. Too bad. The good thing, though, is that two guys can sit at the bar, year after year, telling their story over and over, and know what big men they must be. And, really, isn’t that what it’s about?
Yes Sir!
I’m confident the livestock producers in the area of the wolf kills are happy. Colorado is making a mistake reintroducing apex predators. The money and human resources the state is going to allocate to managing this mistake is ridiculous, and based on a referendum which passed because of voters with no skin in the game. Thanks to the hunters that eliminated those wolves!
Well said Roger. It is 2023 and things will never be the same as they were prior to wolves being eradicated from the western states. There are too many people, too much development, too many human-wolf conflicts (livestock, pets, etc.), and not enough prime habitat left, especially in a state like Colorado. It is a waste of money, and it was decided at the ballot box by urbanites which is ridiculous. At least in Wyoming, they manage the wolves with a regulated hunting season in part of the state and an open season for the rest of the state where they do not want wolves to establish, because there would be too many conflicts. That will never happen in irrational, liberal Colorado. It is going to be quite entertaining to watch this mess develop in Colorado. I don’t think it is going to be pretty, but I am kind of looking forward to it. I want the voters to get what they asked for, which is going to be a lot of problems.
Totally agree…. Gonna need popcorn and some belly laughs…. When those wolves reach Estes park and start jerking unborn fetus out of the cow elk and then leave them alive to suffer and die…..
Then the lefty liberals will not be so happy about their big fluffy wolves…. Not to mention when they tear there prized fidos into pieces….
No laws broken but one can question the use of electronic recordings to lure predators. It requires no calling skill.
Wyoming needs to consider abolishing the practice as unethical. But we know many people in the state don’t care about predators and do not respect their right to life.
I’ve heard people say that wolves sometimes just “kill to kill.” Often they don’t need or eat the meat from their kills. How are these men any different? Funny how they need G & F to protect their identities, and want their faces blotted on the pictures. Afraid the big bad wolf is going to get them?
They need to have their identities protected because of the hypocritical/cowardly anti-hunters who value animals over human life and think it is okay to threaten the lives of hunters. That being said, I don’t know why anybody would actually be afraid of an anti-hunter talking big from behind a keyboard.
They were more than willing to have their ugly mugs put out on facebook. Inquiring minds want to know the people who have decided to manage our game as they deem necessary. Now we have a replacement for WYO fish and game. Cheers. and I stand with the wolves. Maybe mad cow disease and hoof rot would not be in Jackson Hole feedgrounds and moving across the Rockies, if Wolves could be left to do what wolves do. I say throw the book and then some at these jerks.
So what makes these wolves Colorado Wolves? If they came from Wyoming, crossed the border, and then returned to Wyoming, why do they belong to Colorado, as the article states? Further, the author implies that these hunters were morally reprehensible and got off on a technicality. The technicality was that they were following the law. It would appear the laws surrounding wolves in Wyoming are working just as they were designed. So where is the controversy?
The hunters are the textbook definition of morally reprehensible. It’s quite clear from their quotes that they have no ethics regarding hunting or pretty much anything else. Legality doesn’t equal ethics or having ethics and people like this make all hunters look bad. It’s pathetic.
“historic” Colorado wolves???
Those are Canadian grey wolves.
Did they live in Canada? Carry Canadian passports?
They lived in Colorado. As wolves did for hundreds of thousands of years. Humans used to coexist with them peaceably enough. Some still can.
There were an estimated 400,000> Grey Wolves in western North America in the 19th century… all one genus and species regardless of which state, province , or nation they happen to be traipsing through.
@ Sharon. All your sheep you leave strung out across two counties every year probably make for some good wolf bait. All those sheep dogs you abandoned out in the dessert last winter probably did too.
Shoot more! There is nothing illegal about it. If its in Wyoming it belongs to Wyoming. Colorado can stay a damn dope smoking democratic hippie state!
Hate to break it to you Chancey, but we smoke dope in Wyoming too. Lots of it.
They say wolves kill “for fun.” Actually men are the only species that kill for fun. What’s wrong with this (besides the glee) is that these wolves naturally introduced in a remote area. Individuals that kill domestic stock will be culled. Surviving wolves will learn that’s not good business. Now we’ve got this wolf reintroduction plan with naive wolves. This hasn’t worked out very well for wolves and in fact failed miserably in AZ with the Mexican wolf. Leave wildlife management to management professionals, not hunters, not ranchers, not the urban public. This story disgusts me. “Electronic animal distress calls.” Puke.
Country folks are morally superior to city slickers. That’s why they dress up in camo and slaughter wildlife for fun using high tech calls. Wolves can’t shoot back and they know it. It’s pure cowardice. Little soldier of the field, if you want a war go to Ukraine and fight Russians. You wouldn’t last a day.
SMH….. so these guys acted within the law, did nothing wrong and have been harassed for over 3 years.
This is so evil!!! and Wyoming allowing “legal” murder is so very shameful!!!!
This animal was not attacking the man so he couldn’t use self defense as reason for murdering this innocent animal!!
Thanks for the detailed scouting report Mike. I’m sure no one else will hunt Lobos there now that you have published where, when and exactly how to do it. Good job! You left out lodging and restaurant suggestions.
So wrong in every way.
The wolves were brought in to destroy not only wildlife, but to destroy private property. I cannot think of anything more damaging done to private people to equal the wolf introduction/reintroduction. The question is why, other than the big piles of tax payer dollars the wolf people have taken to do it. Even worse is the fact it is human food producers that are impacted the hardest. How many hundred’s of thousands of dollars has it cost individual ranch families? Do the big hots we are forced to support care what it costs?
Pretty biased reporting. Not what I have come to expect from WyoFile. If it’s legal, it’s legal. If you don’t like it, that’s fine, tell us why you don’t like it. But don’t call it news and put a click bait title on it.