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Earlier this week, Colorado Parks and Wildlife released a much-anticipated definition of “chronic depredation,” also identifying situations where lethal action could be taken for wolves that develop a pattern of killing livestock. 

The definition was crafted with the help of an ad hoc working group composed of wolf advocates, Parks and Wildlife staff and the ranching community. The group was created around when the Copper Creek Pack was tied to numerous livestock deaths in Grand County and tasked with working on this definition as well as other ways to decrease tension and address conflict. 

Defining the term marks a shift from the state’s , which did not have a specific definition and rather gave the agency latitude to determine on a case-by-case basis whether a wolf or pack was “chronically depredating.”

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With the new , “chronic depredation” refers to a wolf or wolves connected to three or more depredation events within a 30-day period. Depredation events can include any physical attack resulting in injury or death to livestock or dogs. 

According to Parks and Wildlife, there must be “clear and convincing evidence” that at least one of the events was caused by a wolf. 

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“Clear and convincing evidence leaves no room for serious doubt that a wolf or wolves caused physical trauma resulting in injury or death to livestock or working dogs,” the definition adds. 

This is a higher standard than the agency uses for other game damage. In other livestock killings, it requires “a preponderance of evidence” — meaning it’s more likely than not. For chronic depredation, the other two events must minimally meet this preponderance of evidence standard. 

Before reintroducing its first wolves last year, Colorado obtained a from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to be able to take lethal action against wolves despite their federally protected status. Under its management plan, Parks and Wildlife will consult with the federal agency as well as internal staff before taking any lethal action. 

According to the agency’s memo, it will consider four things when determining whether a confirmed case of chronic depredation merits lethal removal of the wolf or wolves: 

• Whether there is documentation that the wolf or wolves were repeatedly killing and harassing a producer’s livestock or working dogs 
• Whether a variety of nonlethal conflict minimization materials and techniques were attempted
• The likelihood that the wolf or wolves will continue to kill livestock if not killed
• Whether the wolf or wolves were lured or baited to the area — intentionally or not 

While Parks and Wildlife staff can lethally remove wolves, it can also grant a chronic depredation permit if state and federal agencies lack the capacity. 

In cases where the depredations are tied to a pack of wolves, the agency says it will take an incremental approach, first removing one or two wolves to evaluate whether that changes the pack’s behavior enough. 

Ranchers and have been urging Parks and Wildlife to define this term since the spring when the Copper Creek Pack was tied to numerous livestock deaths in Grand County.

In this case, , the agency captured and relocated the Copper Creek pack. The male, which Parks and Wildlife has said was connected to several killings, died in captivity shortly after its capture due to injuries sustained in the wild. The female and four pups that remain in captivity will be released this winter.ÌýÌý

Defining chronic depredation was one of seven items requested by 26 agriculture groups in a September petition to Parks and Wildlife. The petition requested that the agency bring no more wolves to Colorado until the seven items — all programs or ways to minimize conflict between producers and wolves — were fully funded and complete. 

At the same time the agency released the definition, staff also recommended that the Parks and Wildlife commission deny the petition at its upcoming meeting. 

In the recommendation, Jeff Davis, the agency’s director, said that any rulemaking in this case was “unnecessary” as it is working to address — or has addressed — all the requested items. Ranchers, however, still want to see everything fully implemented before more wolves are brought into the state. 

What does wolf depredation look like? 

Since reintroducing wolves last December, Parks and Wildlife has . 

Many ranchers have hypothesized that the actual number of depredations is higher. However, due in part to the geographic and ecological reality of Colorado ranches in the mountains, it’s difficult to confirm wolf-livestock conflicts.

“What’s tough is where we were finding these carcasses, they’re tough to get to,” said Tim Ritschard, a Grand County rancher and president of the Middle Park Stockgrowers Association, in a December interview with the Vail Daily. “It’s a hike in or a 2-mile horseback ride. In the summertime, by the time you find those carcasses, they’re already gone because the bears have come in, the coyotes.”

With some of these circumstances, ranchers would need “to be there every day, all the time to try to find those carcasses to where you can preserve them enough to get (Parks and Wildlife) staff in there to look at them,” Ritschard added. 

Meeting Parks and Wildlife’s “preponderance of evidence” standard requires that there be at least a 51% chance that a wolf was responsible for a death. Evidence can include drag marks, blood, tracks and scat. Parks and Wildlife staff perform field necropsies, looking for evidence as well as signs of hemorrhaging (or bruising) underneath a hide that indicates the animal was alive when attacked.

The investigations are similar for all predators in Colorado, however, according to , there are some differences with wolves. 

This includes that wolves often attack from behind, leaving rake marks on the animal’s hide or causing removal or stripping of the tail among other unique feeding characteristics. In addition to identifying tracks and scat, the agency can use the size of teeth markings to identify the animal responsible. 

Parks and Wildlife has been working to bolster its ability to respond to rancher’s reporting depredations. It has hired five full-time conflict specialists who work directly with ranchers to minimize conflict with not only wolves but also bears, lions and other wildlife. It is looking to hire five more.

It has also developed guidelines and criteria for depredation response to improve and streamline the process. These will be presented to the Parks and Wildlife commission in January.