Colorado wildlife officials on Wednesday published a map showing where wolves have roamed in the past month, but it does not pinpoint where the animals are in real time.

To protect the wolves, officials said they won’t release specific GPS data.

The administration of Gov. Jared Polis produced the map on the day legislators grilled wildlife officials over what policymakers described as communication failures and problems tied to the release of wolves in Grand and Summit counties last month. 

During a hearing, lawmakers said the state mishandled communications, destroying trust with ranchers and landowners. They said those ranchers and land owners are now saying they will no longer work with the state’s wildlife division on conservation issues.

The Polis administration faced intense criticism from ranchers, farmers and legislators who accused Colorado Parks and Wildlife of failing to keep a promise that “no one would be surprised” when the wolves are released. Wildlife officials acknowledged during the hearing that they failed to meet that expectation.

Colorado Parks and Wildlife officials said in a news release that the map would use data collected from the prior month to tell the public, recreationists and livestock producers where the wolves have been.

“By looking at the data, CPW staff can learn where wolves have been, but they cannot tell where wolves are at a current point in time, nor can they predict where the wolves will go,” according to the release. “To protect the wolves, specific GPS data will not be shared.”

The maps, the division said, are created using GPS data collected from the 12 collared wolves in Colorado – the 10 released in December, plus the two that have been killing livestock in Jackson County.

During Wednesday’s hearing, wildlife division officials clarified that the map shows watersheds where the wolves have been – not exact locations.

Notably, the map shows wolves crossing south of I-70, but Colorado Parks and Wildlife Director ?Jeff Davis said the animals have not, in fact, crossed south of I-70 but were on a watershed that crosses south of I-70.

The wildlife division also explained how it’s processing the data. The division said the wolves’ collars are programmed to record a position every four hours and that, once four locations have been recorded, that information is then transmitted via satellite to agency biologists.

Several factors could affect or delay the frequency of transmitting the data or the recording of positions, such as dense cloud cover and closed terrain, officials said.

They said watersheds are the “appropriate mapping unit” because wolves are far more likely to “use geographic features to affect their distribution than they are political boundaries.”

In order for a watershed to “indicate” wolf activity, at least one GPS point from the collars would have to recorded within the boundaries of the watershed, the division said, adding that just because a watershed indicates wolf activity “does not mean that a wolf or wolves are present throughout the entire watershed nor that they are currently in the watershed.”

“For example, a wolf has not yet been located south of I-70, even though the watershed in which a wolf was detected spans both north and south of the interstate,” according to the release. 

Colorado Parks and Wildlife also said it reserves the right to “buffer” maps shared with the public if doing so protects “wolf welfare” during sensitive times of the year, such as the mating season.

All known wolves in Colorado have functional GPS collars, CPW officials said, allowing for “accurate depiction of the watersheds where wolves are known to be active.”

Over time, however, the number of wolves with a collar will diminish because of wolf migrations from other states and natural reproduction of pups that won’t be collared, officials said, adding that means that the map’s accuracy will diminish over time.