The Colorado Wolf and Wildlife Center has announced the results of a contest to informally name five of Colorado’s recently reintroduced gray wolves. The contest started on November 27, with 200,000 5th to 8th graders around Colorado invited to participate, with students of 67 schools ultimately submitting votes.

After the votes were tallied, the winners were as follows:

1. River, the light gray male: Meant to signify “peace” and “growth”

2. Aspen, the darker gray female: Meant to signify “shield” and “magical powers”

3. Maverick, the gray female: Meant to signify “independent” and “rebel”

4. Ghost, the black female: Meant to signify “spirit of the forest”

5. Shadow, the black female: Meant to signify “elusive” and “secretive”

While assigning names to the wolves is fun and a way to engage a lot of Colorado’s younger population, Colorado Parks and Wildlife says they’ll continue to use the wolves’ formal names.

With a wolf’s formal name, the first two numbers indicate the year the animal was captured, with the second set of numbers noting the gender and the order in which the wolves were collared. Males are assigned an odd number for that second set, while females are assigned an even number.

An example of how these wolves are named is “2302-OR” indicating that this wolf was captured in 2023 and was the first female to be collared, with the OR indicating that the animal came from Oregon.

Colorado Parks and Wildlife has thus far brought 10 wolves from Oregon to the state, launching that effort in December. Five additional wolves will likely be added by March.

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