My 2020 Wolf Themed Xmas Card!

I do a Christmas card for my patrons every year that is themed around animals native to my state. This year I decided to feature the gray wolf in honor of it being slated for reintroduction to Colorado this year. Figured I'd share it here in case anyone wanted to see as it's pretty on topic. :> Aroooo!


(note: this is the slightly un-finished preview version, but gives the basic idea.)

Beautiful! 

My best friend lives in Colorado, so I'm a little familiar with the southern half of the state. I didn't know they were reintroducing wolves, thats so interesting!

Amazing art, I love the shading, the lights reflecting off the wolf, the breath.. everything is stunning <3

Oh my goodness, this is absolutely amazing! Your art style is absolutely gorgeous. <3

Thank you! Yeah, it's exciting to have wolves officially returned to their historic range in the rockies. Some have already begun reappearing coming down from Yellowstone, but having a few established packs would be nice. We have a big mule deer/elk overpopulation problem in CO. 

This is gorgeous! And you've done the aurora so well! 

Thank you! I was actually a little nervous about it since I just went for it with no special brushes, so it's good to hear that it doesn't look bad. ^^;

That is really pretty. I love the aurora.

I told someone on Twitter who claimed the wolves would kill livestock because they had no small prey (just not worded correctly) that they were incorrect.  The new wolves will have a surplus of food, they have elk, bison and mule deer to pick from and I'm sure tons of rabbits, hares, etc.  as well.  I don't live in CO, but I know that you all have a big time elk population issue like we have with white tailed deer.  No wolves, so more deer.  We only have coyotes and black bear as natural predators.

Ah yes, it is a bit of a controversial topic for some people, especially ranchers as the implications of impact on their livelihoods are very different than the general population. I've heard one of the bigger issues is that they actually often cause stampedes which lead to busted fences and lost or injured cattle. Colorado has promised to reimburse ranchers for any livestock killed by wolves, but to be honest I'm not sure what the guidelines are on what ranchers have to do to prove wolf attack or if it also includes compensation of property damage/resources spent rounding up cattle.

But yeah, I'm with you, I don't think they will go after cattle because of lack of small prey or wild prey, for sure. Especially in Colorado, there's plenty of game. I think most instances of them going after livestock are just instances of them being opportunistic because they are much easier targets being less used to predation. There will definitely need to be support structures put in place to help ranchers live alongside wolves peacefully, but I believe it can be done if both sides are willing to listen to each other and work together to find a solution. 

 Now, maybe years and years down the road if the population ever gets out of control due to plentiful game and the wolves overpopulate, I can see there being a lot of issues with them going after domesticated herds. But I'm sure they will monitor wolf numbers and prey numbers pretty closely as they do in other reintroduction areas, so I would hope it wouldn't be a problem.

Time will tell!