![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/2025_CPW_Wolf_Restoration_03-1-1024x683.png\")
For Colorado’s growing population of gray wolves, exploration and movement patterns are starting to shift as more packs form. Colorado Parks and Wildlife\/Courtesy Photo<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tFor Colorado’s growing population of gray wolves, exploration and movement patterns are starting to shift as more packs form.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife\/Courtesy Photo<\/p>\n
Earlier this year, one of Colorado\u2019s translocated female gray wolves <\/a>was making broad movements across the Western Slope. Then, one day, she stopped exploring on a wide scale and settled into an area with high-quality wolf habitat \u2014 abundant prey, away from high volumes of human activity.\u00a0<\/p>\n It was there that a male wolf found her, either by following her scent or just by chance. The two mated and became a pack.\u00a0<\/p>\n The story exemplifies the two types of movement patterns that Colorado Parks and Wildlife is observing as it aims to build Colorado\u2019s self-sustaining population of gray wolves \u2014 a mandate handed down to the agency by voters in 2020<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe biggest things, as far as movement, we\u2019re seeing right now are just the difference between territorial wolves and dispersers,\u201d said Brenna Cassidy, Parks and Wildlife\u2019s wolf monitoring and data coordinator. \u201cWolves are social; they live in these groups and they defend a territory. When that happens, their movements look really different than the exploratory, dispersing individuals.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Dispersing wolves<\/p>\n Colorado is almost two years into its reintroduction of gray wolves. Since December 2023, 25 wolves have been relocated to the state, 10 have died and four packs have formed. Per its wolf plan<\/a>, Parks and Wildlife is targeting the release of 30 to 50 wolves in three to five years. This winter, the third release of between 10 to 15 animals could be the state\u2019s last.\u00a0<\/p>\n When wolves are first relocated to Colorado \u2014 with the first 10 coming from Oregon<\/a> and the next 15 from British Columbia<\/a> \u2014 they automatically take on the role of what Cassidy refers to as a \u201cdisperser.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n A disperser, she said, is a wolf that leaves the pack and territory it was born in to \u201cgo off and make it on their own.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cEven though it was like human-mediated (the translocation from their home pack) triggered that exploratory movement to try and find a mate, try and find a pack for that chance to reproduce.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Right now, Colorado has a higher proportion of these dispersers than what you see in more established wolf populations. So, while the proportion is expected to decline, these types of explorers will always be present in the growing state\u2019s wolf population.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe proportion of (dispersers in) the population is higher at this point because they just need a chance to find each other on such a large landscape,\u201d Cassidy said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Typically, in established populations of wolves, while it ultimately depends on the individual wolf, most dispersal occurs when the animals are between 1 and 3 years old. Both males and females will leave their pack. However, in some populations, the proportion of males that leave is higher, Cassidy said.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cSomething we see pretty commonly is that a wolf that is about to leave its home pack and disperse might do an exploratory movement and then come back to their pack, stay a little bit, do another movement, come back,\u201d Cassidy said. \u201cEventually, they just won\u2019t come back, and they\u2019ll just keep moving whether they find a mate or not.\u201d<\/p>\n Where they go and whether they come back depends on a couple of factors.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s really dependent on the time of year that wolf is leaving, where they started, where all the other wolves are in the area,\u201d Cassidy said. \u201cAlso, just because a wolf meets another wolf of the opposite sex doesn\u2019t mean that they want to pair with them. They definitely have the choice to make of whether they stay with that wolf or not.\u201d<\/p>\n Cassidy added that \u201cwolves are really, really good at avoiding inbreeding,\u201d and one of the ways they\u2019ve evolved to avoid it is through dispersal.\u00a0<\/p>\n Different dispersal strategies depend on the individual. Some wolves might take their time exploring an area before moving on to another to evaluate that area for a few weeks. Others might move more quickly, constantly exploring without stopping for extended periods of time.\u00a0<\/p>\n Cassidy said how the exploratory wolves are moving is unpredictable but unsurprising.<\/p>\n \u201cWhile it\u2019s not necessarily predictable where a wolf decides to explore, where a wolf doesn\u2019t decide to explore, or the speed at which they\u2019re doing that, it\u2019s not necessarily surprising what we\u2019re actually seeing,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Building territories\u00a0<\/p>\n Ultimately, these dispersing wolves are aiming to settle down in a pack. Once packs form, the wolves\u2019 movement patterns change as well.<\/p>\n \u201cWhile we can\u2019t say that wolf movement on a really fine scale is necessarily super predictable, those territorial wolves are more predictable in that they\u2019re much more likely to be in their polygon than they are to be outside of it,\u201d Cassidy said.\u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s something that Colorado saw start to happen a little more this year. In the spring, Parks and Wildlife confirmed that there were four packs<\/a> in the state:\u00a0<\/p>\n The Copper Creek pack, which originally formed in Grand County in 2024, with five pups born. After spending five months in captivity with four of the pups, the matriarch had a second den this spring in Pitkin County when she mated with a British Columbia wolf released this January.\u00a0<\/p>\n The King Mountain Pack in Routt County, which has at least four pups<\/a><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/2025_CPW_Wolf_Restoration_53-1024x682.jpg\")
Upon relocation and release in Colorado gray wolves automatically take on the role of a \u201cdisperser,\u201d exploring the landscape in search of quality habitat and a mate. Colorado Parks and Wildlife\/Courtesy Photo<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Sept2025-wolf-map-1024x787.jpg\")
Each month, Colorado Parks and Wildlife releases a map highlighting the watersheds where its collared gray wolves were located. As the population of wolves increase, their movements will change slightly with the establishment of new packs and territories. Colorado Parks and Wildlife\/Courtesy Photo<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/7-17-25-Summer_2025_pup-CPW-1350-x-1080-px-1024x819.png\")
Colorado Parks and Wildlife confirmed there were four wolf packs in the spring of 2025, including the King Mountain Pack in Routt County. Colorado Parks and Wildlife\/Courtesy Photo<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Wolf-Den-USFWS-Yellowstone-1024x683.jpg\")
A wolf den in Yellowstone National Park. The den is typically the center of a wolf pack\u2019s territory. Brendan Oates\/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service<\/p>\n