THANKS, FELLAS: How shooters lured historic Colorado wolves to their deaths in Wyoming.

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.’”

Seriously —- thanks, fellas.

And here’s some background on Colorado’s plan to reintroduce wolves to the Rockies, which — surprise! — is popular in Denver and Boulder but not so much in the rural areas that got outvoted.