Sky-Hi News posted photos of large animal prints in the snow on Facebook on Saturday, Jan. 27 that were submitted by reader Dan Merchant.

According to Merchant, he was running his dogs in Granby around 5 a.m. on Friday, Jan. 26 when he came across two dark figures in the distance. The two figures ran away quickly, but left behind some paw prints behind that Merchant photographed and submitted to Sky-Hi News.

The dogs pictured in the photos are larger dogs, weighing about 70 pounds each. Merchant suspected that these prints belonged to some of the wolves that were recently reintroduced into Colorado.

Rachael Gonzales, one of Colorado Parks and Wildlife’s public information officers, looked into the event and said that no collared wolves have been in the Granby area at the time of the incident. Gonzales also said that identifying the animal from the photographed tracks isn’t possible, however Granby is home to coyotes and mountain lions year round.

“During winter months, it’s not uncommon for increased sightings of either species as Granby is deer and elk winter range,” Gonzales wrote.

Colorado Parks and Wildlife has also released a brochure titled “Living With Wolves” that includes information on how to avoid conflicts with wildlife. The organization has also published information on how to tell the difference between a coyote and a gray wolf.

Gonzales also wrote that CPW receives many wolf sighting reports and cannot validate every informal sighting, CPW staff does carefully review all credible reports submitted through the Wolf Sighting Form.