Evidence suggests second wolf traveling into Northern California

Wildlife biologists are tracking a gray wolf in Siskiyou County, according to a statement from the Department of Fish and Game on Monday.

State fish and wildlife officials aim to obtain scat samples from the animal for DNA testing to determine conclusively whether it is a wolf.

Official set up remote trail cameras after receiving reports earlier this year of a large, dark-colored canid, an animal from the family that includes wolves, foxes, coyotes, jackals and dogs.

OR-7’s arrival to California in late 2011 – the first confirmed wolf sighting in California since 1924 – spurred state officials to add endangered species protections for wolves, a move cheered by wolf-restoration advocates and condemned by some deer and elk hunters and livestock producers. “Wolves are proving what scientists have said all along – that California has great habitat for wolves”.

In early May, images from those cameras showed a large, dark, single animal.

Based on the photographic images and tracks, CDFW biologists believe that this lone animal is a gray wolf. The new areas are a result of two dispersing radio-collared wolves.

After almost a century without wolves being present in the state, this new wolf is the second in the last four years known to cross the border into the Golden State.

OR7 now has a mate and is part of a pack in Oregon.

Gray wolves are listed as endangered under the federal Endangered Species Act.

“It’s critical they have as many legal protections as possible”, said Amaroq Weiss, a West Coast wolf organizer for the Center for Biological Diversity, which advocated for the change in status in California.

Advertisement

The presence of this new wolf – whose sex and specific origins have yet to be determined – is another hint that gray wolves are on the verge of returning to California. In 2012 the California Department of Fish and Wildlife convened a citizen stakeholder group to help the agency develop a state wolf plan for California, and the agency is expected to release its draft plan for public comment shortly.