A young female wolf from Oregon’s Rogue Pack was tracked entering eastern Siskiyou County California in late January. OR-54 probably is the daughter of the first wolf to enter California in a 100 years, OR-7, and likely is dispersing in search of a mate or another pack.
She was trapped in Oregon in early October 2017 and outfitted with a radio collar to help key tabs on southern Oregon’s Rogue Pack and is the only member of that pack wearing a tracking collar. Around the time she was trapped, biologists also spotted OR-7 on a camera trap so as of last fall, he was still alive and well.
In 2014, OR-7 fathered the first wolf pack in southwestern Oregon in more than six decades. He and his mate also had litters each of the next three springs. OR-7 will turn 9 years old this spring. The average life span of wolves in the wild is 6 years, fish and wildlife statistics show.
The Daily Bucket is a nature refuge. We amicably discuss animals, weather, climate, soil, plants, waters and note life’s patterns spinning around us.
We invite you to note what you are seeing around you in your own part of the world, and to share your observations in the comments below.
|
OR-54′s locations will continue to be tracked by the Fish and Wildlife Service as well as ODFW, which is sharing those GPS coordinates with its California counterparts as they monitor its movements in California.
OR-54 brings to six the number of known wolves in Northern California, including the five-wolf Lassen Pack that DNA tests prove was sired by one of OR-7′s offspring . . . At least one other black wolf has been seen in the past within the Lassen Pack territory, but it does not appear to be traveling with the pack....
In all, OR-7 and three of its offspring now have been verified at some time in California,
I don’t know what is the status of the Shasta Pack, the first pack to form in California documented in summer 2015. They’ve been off the radar for awhile. Lassen Pack was discovered last summer.
If I were a young wolf in Oregon, I’d want to GTFO too. Some ranchers don’t bother to follow livestock predation risk reduction practices and then are fired up when they lose cattle. They want the state to list wolves as “invasive species” (because yeah sure cattle are totally natural and have precedence due to their ecosystem importance). Wolves have been killed for the joy of being a mighty wolf hunter AKA poaching.
But today is Valentine’s Day so let’s focus young love, OR-54’s search for a mate, and the potential for a new wolf pack in California. Maybe she’ll find that solo black wolf wandering around.
SPOTLIGHT ON GREEN NEWS & VIEWS POSTS EVERY SATURDAY AND WEDNESDAY AFTERNOONS (PACIFIC TIME) ON THE DAILY KOS FRONT PAGE. BE SURE TO LOOK FOR THE STORIES YOU MISSED. RECOMMEND AND COMMENT TO THANK METEOR BLADES FOR HIS DEDICATED CURATION.
|