It was early March when shots rang out on one of Colorado’s largest cattle ranches. The bullets were directed at the breeding female of the King Mountain wolf pack as she was reportedly in pursuit of a group of cows and calves during the spring calving season. Doing what any responsible ranch hand would do (read: protect cows), he let a pair of warning shots go before delivering a fatal one that dropped the would-be attacker and set off chain reaction that now includes a joint investigation by Colorado Parks and Wildlife and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Susan Nottingham, owner of the sprawling 20,000-acre Nottingham Ranch has since made the incident public, describing the event in detail.
"It was in my field and in the act, running toward some mothers and baby calves, when my (ranch) hand saw her there," Nottingham told the Coloradoan earlier this week. "He shot two warning shots and shot a third one but he wasn't sure if he hit it. It was still running the last he saw it."
Nottingham noted that due to the intense demands of calving season, the crew did not immediately locate the carcass.
The timing of the kill was particularly difficult as the King Mountain pack’s breeding male had died just a couple months earlier during a CPW collaring operation. With the breeding male gone, the remaining wolves, which included this female and four pups, shifted closer to the ranch’s calving areas, where over 1,100 cows were present.
Nottingham had previously received compensation for three confirmed wolf-killed calves in 2025 but reported many more suspected losses. In a public document, she said she was denied a lethal take permit after those incidents, a decision she appealed at significant personal expense which included the loss of 60 calves or about $180,000.
"Since the introduction of gray wolves into Colorado in 2023, my life — and that of all my neighbors — has become, quite literally, a living hell," Nottingham wrote in a public submission to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife
This case marks the first confirmed instance of a private citizen in Colorado killing a wolf since the reintroduction began. Under the federal 10(j) experimental population rule, lethal take is permitted when a wolf is actively attacking livestock, working dogs, or poses a threat to human safety.
CPW and USFWS must now determine whether the shooting qualifies as justified self-defense of livestock. If approved, the agency can issue a retroactive lethal take permit. If not, the ranch hand could face fines up to $100,000 and up to one year in jail.
The outcome will likely set an important precedent for how strictly (or flexibly) Colorado interprets “in the act” of attacking livestock.
This case arrives at a particularly fragile moment for the state’s wolf program. With wolf survival rates hovering around 44%, taxpayer-funded compensation payouts already doubling budgeted amounts, halted releases for 2026, and the program’s longtime lead biologist Eric Odell retiring later this month, Colorado’s voter-approved reintroduction effort is showing serious signs of strain. What was sold as a straightforward path to a self-sustaining population now looks more like a structural challenge, running low on wolves, money, and any form of operational leadership.
The current federal review of Colorado’s program is open for comments until June 5. Expect this incident, along with the growing pile of practical failures, to feature heavily. The next few months may determine whether the program gets reformed into something workable for the people living with it, or quietly continues its slide toward failure.
