Small Pack of Grey Wolves Spotted In Northern California

If you love wolves or you are a great fan House Stark’s sigil, you will be pleased to hear that a new wolf pack has emerged in California, wolves that have not been seen for nearly one century. Cameras mounted on a hiking trail by California’s Department of Fish and Wildlife captured these images of the two adults and five pups. Because of the proximity to the original camera locations, it is likely the adult previously photographed in May and July is associated with the group of pups, officials said.

“This news is exciting for California”.

Are we right to be optimistic about the return of wolves to the state, with only a single pack calling it home?

“This is an Endangered Species Act success story in the making”, commented an excited Pamela Flick from the non-profit organization, Defenders of Wildlife conservation.

“If the public wants wolves, maybe they should support the people who are helping feed the wolves”, a Siskiyou County rancher told the Sacramento Bee. Wilbur said ranchers would like to have the ability to drive off and, as a last resort, kill any wolves that threaten their livestock. That wolf has not been in California for more than a year and is now the breeding male of a pack in southern Oregon.

The Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission will consider removing state endangered species protections for some gray wolves at meetings scheduled for the fall.

According to a report from the LA Times, however, the discovery of seven other wolves in Siskiyou County earlier this month caught wildlife enthusiasts off guard.

The agency plans to reach out to hunters – some of whom worry that wolves could deplete deer and elk populations – about the presence of wolves and how to distinguish them from coyotes, which may be shot.

Fish and Wildlife expects to release a draft of a wolf management plan by the end of the year. The wolves pose very little threat to humans, they said.

The state is posting on its website answers to Frequently Asked Questions.

California officials say they’ve not yet decided whether to fit the animals of the Shasta pack with collars for tracking purposes, as is done in Oregon, but suggest that they may do so with at least one of the adults.

The Sonoma Land Trust is hosting two screenings of Clemens Schenk’s film about OR7 this week in Santa Rosa. The whole pack was confirmed on August . 9. DNA tests using scat are being conducted to determine this family’s exact origins.