Two wolves released on Dec. 19 in Grand County came from a pack that Oregon officials said preyed on livestock in the last two years.
The Five Points Pack wolves injured one calf and killed another in separate depredations in July of 2023; killed a cow on Dec. 5, 2022; and, injured a 900-pound yearling heifer on July 17, 2022, according to Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife Livestock Depredation Investigations.
Two wolves from the pack — 2302-OR, a juvenile female, black color and 68 pounds, and 2303-OR, a juvenile male, gray color, 76 pounds — were among the five from Oregon that arrived in Colorado several days ago and released in the Western Slope, the culmination of years of planning for a program that has stoked political tensions and is likely to lead to conflicts as the predators make the valleys, lakes and peaks of the north-central Rocky Mountains their new home.
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One of my favorite Youtube documentary series is continuing. The Munros: A Personal Voyage has produced some really fine docos on the Jacobite Cause and the Glen Coe Massacre. Now they’re taking the history into the 18th Century.
For some weeks now, intensive research, writing and recording has been underway on a new project – and it’s the most ambitious one yet. Over three feature-length films, we’ll explain the events that led to the 1708, 1715 and 1719 Jacobite Risings and their major antecedent, the Act of Union between Scotland and England. This complex and intriguing saga takes in epic European wars of dynasty, labyrinthine conspiracies, the Shakespearian tragedy of Darien, fragile allegiances, shattering betrayals, seismic shifts in global geopolitics, exiles, dolphins, pretenders, the foundations of the British Empire… and the infamous surrender of Scottish independence.
This is important Frontier Partisan history, for the Highlanders are a frontier people (explored in the Frontier Partisans Podcast back in 2021). The fallout from the Jacobite Risings also had an impact on the North American frontier, as Highlanders exiled for their Jacobite activities or enlisted in the army of their conqueror were found on the American frontier, serving in Highland regiments in the French & Indian War and operating in the fur trade all through the 19th Century and beyond.
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Another favorite channel, Fandabi Dozi, serves up a bit of storytelling around the lurid career of the rogue swordsman Donald McBane:
Matthew says
About wolves coming here to Colorado: On the one hand, I always thought wolves were cool. On the other my six year old niece lives in a rural area and I am afraid she might get eaten.
lane batot says
Just don’t leave yer young niece unattended in some area where wolves are hunting! A good idea not to leave someone that young unattended anywhere, of course! Bipedal primates are a far greater risk to your niece than any wolves. Having said that, I myself grew up a free range kid from toddlerhood, but there were no wolves about–despite the accusations I regularly get that I was raised by wolves–and my third parent( I had THREE parents) ALWAYS accompanied me, wherever I toddled, and heaven help any bipedal primate that even looked sideways at me, or dared to raise their voice in my presence! That third parent was a very serious Dalmatian, that harked back to his Coach Dog ancestry, and very effectively CLEARED THE WAY of anything he considered a potential threat in my path!
Quixotic Mainer says
The tale of McBane being “hoisted by his own petard”, always gets me. I have only trained on flash grenados, but the urge to get that thing far away from me once it is showing it’s teeth rings loud, pun intended.
Yule left me owning Burnham’s Scouting on Two Continents. Not sure how I didn’t have that before!
JimC says
You’ll enjoy that.
Brian H. says
Colorado already had wolves crossing the WY border before this s***show got started. It’s a whole bucket of b.s. that comes from ballot box biology. Can’t find fault in wolves being wolves and the idea that Colorado still has the wilderness needed for such alpha predators is a pipe dream. I hope for the time being they can make it into RMNP. It’s got a lot of elk. Otherwise our west slope ranchers are simply facing yet another reason to quit the life.
JimC says
One of the things that really bothers me about this is when I hear people — some of them friendly acquaintances, if not friends — saying that if ranchers “just” this or “just” do that everything will be fine and harmonious. They have no idea what they’re asking of people who, as you say, already have a bunch of reasons to give up on the life. I know a bit about that — my grandfather never really got over giving up their ranch in the 1930s.
Naturally, there’s a romantic side of me that would love to see and experience the West in the state that it was when Jed Smith rode across it. Wouldn’t want to run into Old Ephraim around the bend of trail though. I like my ears where they are on my head.
And the West is NOT that anymore, and can’t be “rewilded” in a true sense without driving people off of it, which I think is part of the program here. And, yes, I do realize that we previously drove others off of it.
lane batot says
I’m not going to start a harangue in favor of wolves here(though I certainly favor wolves, for many reasons–but NOT at the total expense of humans. But there ARE things humans CAN do to live fairly peacefully in wolf territory….) But it is sad how POLARIZED such issues become, ignorance on both sides–the wolf huggers, and the wolf haters! EVERYONE interested or involved in this issue really should read Carter Niemeyer’s splendid, factual, blunt book titled simply “Wolfer”. He was the predator control guy called out to remove problem wolves when they did become problems. Straight from the horse’s mouth, so to speak! He has plenty to say about the damage wolves can do, but also the misinterpretation of damage blamed falsely on wolves, and the sheer slackness of some livestock owners in the care of their livestock. Yes, there are truly destructive individual wolves and individual packs of wolves, which must be “controlled”. And yes, there are terribly incompetent ranchers–as I’m sure many competent, responsible ranchers could attest!