The “Shasta Pack”, a wolf pack of two adult wolves and five pups, have been found in California. A game camera recently captured pictures of a pack of gray wolves in southeastern Siskiyou County.
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After trail cameras recorded a lone canid in May and July, CDFW deployed additional cameras, one of which took multiple photos showing five pups, which appear to be a few months old and others showing individual adults.
All the wolves are black in color, which is fairly common among gray wolves, according to Fish and Wildlife.
Because of the proximity to the original camera location, it is likely the adult previously photographed in May and July is associated with the group of pups. Scat was collected from the animals and sent to a lab in Idaho to determine where the wolves came from and their lineage.
“We’re really excited, if not amazed, at what this species of animal has been able to do”, said Eric Loft of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. The results are pending.
Wild wolves historically inhabited California, but were wiped out.
Karen Kovacs, the wildlife program manager who has been monitoring the movement of wolves along the Oregon border and into California, says that she believes this pack is unique from OR-7, the male whose travels into California fueled a conversation about how wolves would be managed once they entered the state.
Gray wolves, which were hunted to the brink of extinction throughout the western United States, are protected in California under the federal government’s Endangered Species Act, and are very gradually beginning to return.
The pack was discovered four years after the famous Oregon wondering wolf OR-7 first reached Northern California.
The state is now working on a management plan for wolves that will govern how the population is handled.
Wolves were driven into extinction in California in 1924, when the last one was killed in Lassen County.
They were named the Shasta pack for nearby Mount Shasta.
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Fish and Wildlife officials said the wolves do not pose a public safety threat.
