Colorado officials plan to capture up to 15 gray wolves from British Columbia’s backcountry to help the Centennial State re-establish a long-lost population of the predator.

In a statement, Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) said their experts began their non-lethal hunt Friday in coordination with the BC Ministry of Water, Land and Resource Management.

Wolves historically inhabited Colorado, CPW notes, but were hunted to the point of extirpation — local or regional extinction — in the 1940s.

In recent years, the state has sought to reintroduce the species after voters approved a ballot measure to bring them back.

In 2023, the first 10 wolves were brought from Oregon. CPW says the addition of BC wolves will increase the chances of mating, breeding and pack formation.

“We are excited to work with BC to bring together our combined experience and expertise while ensuring the safety of animals and staff,” CPW Wolf Conservation Program Manager Eric Odell said in a statement.

“This new native gray wolf population will provide additional genetic diversity to Colorado’s wolf population.”

Chelsea Greer, director of wolf conservation programs at the Rainy Coast Conservation Foundation, says BC’s offering of wolves from its wilderness is full of unknowns.

“It’s all incredibly stressful and raises welfare concerns,” Greer said.

‘Pretty Dark’

Greer said the time to capture the animals is not ideal now.

She said that it is currently wolf breeding season, with social tensions and stress already high.

Greer argues that wolf populations are also threatened in BC between hunting and wolves the controversial killing of wolveswhich she says kills hundreds every year.

Colorado Parks and Wildlife estimates 5,300 to 11,600 wolves in the province, and Greer suggested an estimate of 6,000.

“They’re both pretty dark,” she said of the population.

“We wouldn’t say we’re not in favor of that reintroduction, but when you look at the fate of potentially wolves in Colorado and the fate of wolves in BC, would reintroducing them to Colorado give them a better chance of survival? That’s a tough question to answer and one that we really won’t know until it potentially happens.”

The program has also raised concerns among ranchers in Colorado about wolves preying on their herds and flocks.

Ranchers’ concerns

Tim Ritschard of the Middle Park Cattle Producers Association told CNN that there have been livestock deaths in that state since the first reintroduction.

“Two weeks, three weeks later, wolves already started killing animals. We just didn’t know what it was,” Ritschard said.

CPW says it has introduced measures to prevent conflicts with livestock such as a rider program and “non-lethal tools”.

It also said the BC wolves will come from areas where livestock does not overlap, “so there is no concern about re-introducing wolves that are from packs involved in repeated livestock depredation situations.”

But Ritschard’s groups want a break on this re-presentation.

“I don’t know how they’re going to prepare these people or these non-lethal units when we don’t even have them on the ground, ready to go.”

Greer said whether or not wolves thrive in Colorado will depend not only on whether the animals adapt to their new environment, but also on the “tolerance and acceptance” of the animals by Colorado citizens.

BC’s Ministry of Water, Land and Resource Management has been contacted for comment on this story.