Karen Kovacs of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife said it was an incredible accomplishment for gray wolves to establish themselves in Northern California just 21 years after wolves were reintroduced in the Northern Rockies.
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The department has no goals for how many wolves might eventually live in California and no idea how many once lived in the state, she added.
Wolves were driver to near extinction by the beginning of the 20th century as a result of expanding human settlement in the West. In the 1990s, active conservation efforts involving their reintroduction to Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming made their numbers surge, but their presence in California was still scarce. Others are concerned about the dangers to wildlife as well as people.
The pups are thought to be four months old and, like their parents, all have black coats.
“They would like to protect their livestock in the first place”, Wilbur said of his members, “rather than have their livestock brutally taken down by a gray wolf and then get compensation for it”.
Are we right to be optimistic about the return of wolves to the state, with only a single pack calling it home?
The wildlife experts were also excited in 2011 when a collared lone wolf labeled OR-7 crossed into California from Oregon for a brief period.
Officials have named them “The Shasta Pack” for their proximity to Mount Shasta. The creature has been spotted for the first time after almost 91 years.
“These animals have a tremendous ability to reoccupy former range (and) their reproductive potential is quite high”, Kovacs said Thursday.
Wild wolves historically inhabited California, but were extirpated.
“We’re very interested in where did these wolves come from and who did they descend from”, Kovacs told the Sacramento Bee.
Expecting that the wolves might eventually make their way into California, last year, the California Fish and Game Commission declared them an endangered species in anticipation.
There are at least 5,500 gray wolves in the contiguous 48 states, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. However, not everyone is happy about it, and wolves lack federal protection in Alaska, Idaho, and Montana, as well as parts of Utah, Oregon, and Washington State.
Motion-activated cameras set along trials in Siskiyou County captured images of the group, which has been dubbed the Shasta Pack, after the nearby Mount Shasta.
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To enable wolves to thrive in California, an array of stakeholders – including animal advocates, hunters, ranchers and government agencies – will need to find common ground, said Defenders of Wildlife’s Flick.
