Colorado has wolves again for the first time in 80 years. Why are they dying?

Wildlife officials release five gray wolves on public land in northwestern Colorado on December 18, 2023. | Jerry Neal/Colorado Parks and Wildlife On a sunny morning two years ago, a group of state officials stood in the mountains of northwestern Colorado in front of a handful of large metal crates. With a small crowd watching them, the officials began to unlatch the crate doors one by one. Out of each came a gray wolf — arguably the nation’s most controversial endangered species.  This was a massive moment for conservation.  While gray wolves once ranged throughout much of the Lower