![]() There are now, Traverso said, a “couple handfuls” of wolves in the state, which is their historic habitat. Prior to 2011, a gray wolf had not been spotted in California since the 1920s, when they were wiped out by hunters. Gray wolves are listed as endangered in California but were removed from the federal roster last month. “But we also have to deal with the effects of them being here.” “We do manage for conservation, so we do want to see them be here,” Traverso said. For a cattle rancher, wolves mean a new predator. In the northern part of the state, where the wolves tend to live, there are cattle ranches, agriculture, water infrastructure and places “that aren’t totally set up for habitat,” said Jordan Traverso, a spokeswoman with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. It’s a thrilling prospect to her and others who support conservation.īut not everyone is thrilled by the wolves’ return. Wolves tend to follow in the “paw steps” of others that came before them, often drawing on their sharp sense of smell, meaning OR-93 could lead others to the area, she said. The majority of wolves in California are from northeastern Oregon, she said. And even if he isn’t, he is blazing a trail,” said Pamela Flick, California program director for Defenders of Wildlife, a conservation organization.Īccording to Flick, who has been tracking gray wolves in the state for about a decade, OR-93 - the 93rd collared wolf from Oregon - forged a new route from his home southeast of Mt. “Who knows, he might be the patriarch of the first wolf pack in the Central Sierra or the Eastern Sierra. ![]() The young male wolf known as OR-93, who is outfitted with a GPS collar, was most recently tracked in Mono County in the central Sierra Nevada, hundreds of miles from his birthplace in northern Oregon, according to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, which is monitoring his movement. He brings either hopes of needed genetic diversity or anxieties of predation, depending on whom you ask. OR-7 eventually returned to Oregon, but the wolf population has gradually increased in the last few years with the Lassen pack, first identified in 2017, and Whaleback pack, identified in 2020, along with the discovery of the Beckwourth pack last year.The latest gray wolf to make the long journey from Oregon to California has trekked farther south than any wolf tracked in the last century. In 2011, an Oregon wolf with a radio collar, dubbed OR-7, became the first confirmed wolf in California in nearly a century, “staggering the world,” Weiss said. Gray wolves were eradicated in California in the early 20th century because of their perceived threat to livestock. “California’s wolf recovery is still really, really brand new,” Weiss said. The Lassen pack currently has at least a dozen family members, and the Whaleback pack has at least 13, according to the Center for Biological Diversity. Several pups from the previous year’s litters, called yearlings, have also stayed with their packs, another healthy sign of wolves’ revival in the state. ![]() This is the sixth consecutive year the Lassen pack delivered a litter, and the second successive year for the Whaleback pack - signs of building momentum, Weiss said. ![]()
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