Preparing For The Return of Gray Wolves To California. Wednesday, October 22, 2014 By Megan Burke, Maureen Cavanaugh Video Gray Wolves In Yellowstone An event in Julian this Saturday will explore the return of the gray wolf.
As one California wildlife expert puts it, the public is fascinated by the issue of wolves in the West. “It has caused great interest and controversy among the people of California and certainly some consternation among the ranching and farming communities in Northern California. Lately there have been some real reasons for that fascination to increase. “The gray wolf was reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park in northwest Wyoming, reintroduced to Montana and Idaho, and they’re doing quite well there and the population is expanding," said Sutton. Sutton says this reintroduction could benefit the overall health of surrounding wildlife. Wandering wolf's signal ready to fade. The Associated Press Posted: 03/27/2014 10:12:56 AM PDT0 Comments|Updated: 12 days ago Click photo to enlarge File - This May 8, 2012 file...
((AP Photo/California Department of Fish and Game, Richard Shinn)) MEDFORD, Ore. The Global Positioning System collar that has sent regular electronic pulses to reveal his travels for the past three years has eclipsed its normal life span, and state and federal biologists don't plan to replace it. "When that collar dies, we'll never know his fate," Rob Klavins of the conservation group Oregon Wild told the Mail Tribune newspaper ( "But that could be OK. OR-7: Watch out! The wolf is at the door! - Jack Ohman. A "Journey" through 2012. A year ago, Oregon's most famous wolves blazed a historic trail.
Now the state stands at a crossroads. In 1999, a wolf known as B-45 swam the Snake River and became the first confirmed wolf in Oregon in over half a century. Panicked wildlife agencies quickly decided to tranquilize the animal and send her back to Idaho by helicopter. With a little help from the public, the state agency charged with conserving wildlife (ODFW – Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife) took a deep breath and charted a new course forward. That change allowed a very different story to take place exactly one year ago. Story of Wolf OR-7 - California Department of Fish and Game.
Background The male wolf known as “OR7” was born in northeastern Oregon in spring 2009.
It weighed approximately 90 pounds when collared with a radio transmitter by Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) in February 2011. It is referred to by biologists as OR7 because it was the seventh wolf radio-collared in Oregon. Its collar transmits location information to satellites daily and is expected to continue to function until at least 2013. Until recently, OR7 was a member of northeastern Oregon’s Imnaha pack. Although it had as many as 16 wolves in 2010, the Imnaha pack may now have as few as five animals. The dispersal of younger individuals from a pack is common. OR5 is a female and entered southeastern Washington in December 2010. During winter and spring, the Imnaha pack tends to occupy lower-elevation areas consisting of a mix of private and public lands. Wolf OR7 has his first known human contact in California. State wildlife biologist Richard Shinn spotted OR7 on Tuesday in California's Modoc County and snapped the first known color photo of the male gray wolf that crossed over from Oregon in December, becoming California's only documented free-ranging wolf since the 1920s.
OR7 has been on the move in extreme northern California now for months. “He appeared very healthy,” Karen Kovacs, a wildlife program manager for the California Department of Fish and Game in Redding, told Associated Press. The wolf was spotted on private land when Shinn, a California game warden and a federal trapper visited ranchers on Tuesday to notify them that GPS signals showed the gray wolf was nearby. They looked over a sagebrush hillside with binoculars and saw the wolf. "There, all of a sudden, out pops a head, and there he is,” said Kovacs. OR-7, Well-Traveled Oregon Wolf, Photographed In California. GRANTS PASS, Ore.
(AP) — A young male wolf from Oregon that has won worldwide fame while trekking across mountains, deserts and highways looking for a mate has had what appears to be his first close encounter with people, and got his picture taken, to boot. A federal trapper, a state game warden and a state wildlife biologist were visiting ranchers in Northern California on Tuesday to notify them that GPS signals showed the gray wolf was in the area, when they stopped to look over a sagebrush hillside with binoculars, said Karen Kovacs, wildlife program manager for the California Department of Fish and Game in Redding, Calif. "There, all of a sudden, out pops a head, and there he is," she said. "He appeared very healthy. " The wolf was hanging out with three coyotes, and appeared curious about the people watching him.
"He has managed to stay off the radar as far as people getting visuals of this critter," she said. OR-7, Well-Traveled Oregon Wolf, Photographed In California. California's lone wolf seen mingling with coyotes. Photo: Richard Shinn, Associated Press This May 8, 2012 photo provided by the California Department of Fish and Game shows OR-7, the Oregon wolf that has trekked across two states looking for a mate, on a sagebrush hillside in Modoc County, Calif.
Lone California wolf's fascination with a wildfire. The famous lone wolf of California has been roaming curiously close to a large wildfire in Plumas County this week in what experts think might be a fiendishly clever ploy to pick off prey fleeing the flames.
The first wolf to enter the state in almost 90 years was tracked using his GPS collar to within a mile of the 63,160-acre Chips Fire, which was still burning out of control near Lake Almanor on Friday. "Over the last week he was pretty darn close to the perimeter of this fire, strangely so," said Karen Kovacs, the wildlife program manager for the California Department of Fish and Game. "There was speculation that he might be going after animals that are moving away from the fire. " Nobody really knows for sure what the wolf, known as OR7, is up to, she said, but there aren't many other reasons the canine predator would be lurking so close to towering flames.
Gov. Taking advantage? Wolf apparently gives up search for mate in Nevada. California county decides against wolf ban. View full sizeAllen DanielsA hunter trying to track a deer with a trail camera caught what is believed to be the first photo of OR-7, Oregon's wandering gray wolf who has since crossed the border into California.
KLAMATH FALLS -- Officials in Siskiyou County in Northern California have decided not to take up a measure banning wolves like the one from Oregon that has been wandering around looking for a mate. Supervisor Jim Cook told The Herald and News newspaper in Klamath Falls the ordinance proposed by a local cattleman didn't seem to have much community support and had not been vetted. He adds that supervisors did not want to react to one wolf passing through. The wolf known as OR-7 left northeastern Oregon last year and has traveled more than 1,000 miles.
Its quest has taken it into Northern California, back into Oregon, and back into Northern California. Expert says wolves not likely threat in Siskiyou County. Carter Niemeyer presentation on wolves None YREKA — Wolves aren't likely to be much of a threat to Siskiyou County anytime soon, according to a wolf expert who spoke to about 150 people here Thursday.
OR-7, the only wolf that has visited Siskiyou County in decades, isn't likely to survive long enough to mate and give wolves a toehold in the region, said Carter Niemeyer, a former wolf recovery coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Agency in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming. "My personal and professional opinion is it's a long shot," Niemeyer said of the chances of California's lone wolf, OR-7, surviving long enough to start his own pack in Siskiyou County.
Siskiyou County Agricultural Commissioner Patrick Griffin said he invited Niemeyer to speak to address concerns that county residents have about wolves becoming established in the area. Many of those who asked questions of Niemeyer during the meeting said they were concerned about how the wolf would affect livestock, deer and elk.