The Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) is looking for out-of-the-box ideas to slow wolf depredations on cattle in northern Colorado. That’s where wild donkeys or burros come into play. CPW wildlife officers delivered four wild donkeys to a Jackson County rancher in hopes they will help prevent wolves from preying on his cattle herd.
Don Gittleson, the rancher, has had three “depredation events” on his cattle herd in December and January. After the third event, Gittleson and CPW Officer Zach Weaver met with the APHIS to discuss methods of preventing the “depredation events”. During that meeting, they discovered that there is some evidence that wild donkeys may prevent wolf depredations.
“We didn’t want to bring an animal that had been at low elevation, say like southern California, where they had not been in negative temperatures or seen snow. Don [Gittleson] and I wanted animals that had been at a higher elevation so they were acclimated and had developed hair for the cold. You’re talking 5,000 feet there as opposed to 8,000 at our lowest. We also wanted mature animals that had been on the landscape and would know how to defend themselves.” – CPW Officer Zach Weaver
Finding Wild Donkeys
As a result of this information, Weaver located potential wild donkeys available for adoption in late January. These donkeys were recently captured off of the high desert in Nevada and were in Utah awaiting adoption. Officer Weaver and Officer Josh Dilley drove to Utah and picked up six of the animals (two gelded jacks and four jennies) with ages ranging from 5 to 11 years old.
CPW officials are hopeful that this tactic will give them the results that the data claims it will. Although this isn’t a service that the CPW can offer to every rancher Weaver has been telling other ranchers to reach out to him.
You can read more about this tactic by clicking here. You can also read more Colorado hunting news by clicking here. Thanks for reading!
