GRAND COUNTY, Colorado — Somewhere on a remote mountainside in Colorado’s Rockies, a latch flipped on a crate and a wolf bounded out, heading toward the tree line. Then it stopped short.
For a moment, the young female looked back at its audience of roughly 45 people who stared on in reverential silence. Then she disappeared into the forest.
She was one of five gray wolves wildlife officials released in a remote part of Colorado’s Rocky Mountains on Monday to kick off a voter-approved reintroduction program that was embraced in the state’s mostly Democratic urban corridor but staunchly opposed in conservative rural areas where ranchers worry about attacks on livestock.
The wolves were set free from crates in a Grand County location that state officials kept undisclosed to protect the predators.
It marked the start of the most ambitious wolf reintroduction effort in the U.S. in almost three decades and a sharp departure from aggressive efforts by Republican-led states to cull wolf packs. A judge on Friday night had denied a request from the state’s cattle industry for a temporary delay to the release.
The group watched as the first two wolves — 1-year-old male and female siblings with gray fur — were set free. The male bolted up the golden grass, running partially sideways to keep an eye on everyone behind, then turning left into the trees.
The crowd watched in silence, then some hugged each other and low murmurs started up.
When the latch on the second crate flipped, the wolf didn’t budge. Everyone waited as Colorado Gov. Jared Polis peeked into the cage.
After roughly 30 seconds, those around the crates stepped back, giving the wolf space. The female slowly rose then bounded up a snowy divot in the dirt road, looking back before disappearing into an aspen grove.
Wolves “have larger-than-life places in human imagination, in the stories we all grew up with and tell each other,” said Polis. “To see them in their natural habitat, and turn around…
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