Officials make 'exciting' discovery after releasing iconic creatures into wild: 'We are elated'

Colorado wildlife officials have identified at least four gray wolf dens with pups, an important milestone in efforts to reintroduce the wolves to the state's wilderness, The Colorado Sun reported.

"We are elated to welcome these new wolf pups into the world and into our great state," said Delaney Rudy, Colorado director for the Western Watersheds Project, per The Sun.

Rudy called the new wolf families an "exciting step toward restoring ecological balance in Colorado."

Considered native to Colorado, gray wolves once occupied all portions of the state, according to Colorado Parks and Wildlife.

But as settlers killed off the bison and elk on which the wolves traditionally preyed, wolves increasingly turned to livestock for food, bringing them into conflict with ranchers. This led to the systematic eradication of wolves from the state in the 1930s and 1940s, per CPW.

Following the successful reintroduction of gray wolves into Yellowstone National Park in 1995, a few wolves periodically made their way into Colorado but never enough to reestablish a self-sustaining population, according to CPW's Colorado Gray Wolf Annual Report.

In 2020, Colorado voters approved a ballot initiative requiring CPW to establish a program for reintroducing gray wolves into the Colorado wilderness by the end of 2023.

The four gray wolf dens with pups represented some of the fruits of that endeavor.

As the 30-year-old program to reintroduce gray wolves into Yellowstone has demonstrated, reestablishing native ecosystems and maintaining biological diversity bring a host of benefits, foreseen and unforeseen.

"Wolf reintroduction caused unanticipated change in Yellowstone," according to Defenders of Wildlife. "It rebalanced elk and deer populations, allowing the willows and aspen to return to the landscape."

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"The end to overgrazing stabilized riverbanks and rivers recovered and flowed in new directions," continued Defenders of Wildlife. "Songbirds returned as did beavers, eagles, foxes and badgers."

That the presence of wolves could influence the flow of rivers showed how incredibly intertwined our natural ecosystems are and how important it is to maintain healthy biodiversity.

Colorado is hoping for similar results from its reintroduction program.

"These newly established wolf families significantly bolster the wolf population in the state and are markers of the success of the wolf reintroduction program," said the nonprofit Western Watersheds Project, per The Colorado Sun.

If you want to do your part to sustain biodiversity in your area, consider planting a native garden, which provides food and shelter for local wildlife such as pollinators, birds, and small mammals. Similarly, you can upgrade from a monoculture lawn to a natural lawn or even rewild your yard.

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