The Return of Gray Wolves to California
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- Опубліковано 12 кві 2022
- Once common throughout much of North America, the gray wolf (Canis lupus) was driven to localized extinction in most areas of the contiguous United States by the mid-1930s through bounties and wildly successful predator control efforts. The last wild gray wolf in California was shot in Lassen County in 1924.
Flash forward to late December 2011, when a young male wolf known as OR-7 entered our state from Oregon, making him the first known wild wolf in the Golden State in nearly 90 years. In Summer 2015, news spread that California’s first resident wolf family, dubbed the Shasta Pack for the massive dormant volcano near where they were discovered, had settled into eastern Siskiyou County. The following summer, we learned about the Lassen Pack, which straddles the Lassen/Plumas county line and has produced pups every year since 2017. Yet another pair of wolves, known as the Whaleback Pack in Siskiyou County, produced seven pups in 2021. Wolves are no longer merely passing through; they’re settling in and making themselves at home here in our state.
This presentation will provide an overview of gray wolf natural history, ecological role and current distribution and population in North America and here in California. The historic reintroduction efforts in the northern Rockies to bring wolves back from the brink of extinction will be discussed, as will implications for wolf recovery in the western states with an emphasis on the importance of coexistence and moving beyond myths.
Pamela Flick is the California Program Director for Defenders of Wildlife based in Sacramento, where she engages on a variety of issues statewide including gray wolf recovery, responsible renewable energy planning and development, forest resilience and fire restoration, and advancing conservation of imperiled species and natural communities.
About 6 years ago I could of sworn I saw a dead grey wolf near the American river near auburn ca. they are so much bigger than you would imagine. If it wasn’t a Wolf it was the largest coyote I ever saw.
Thx for the hard work.
A challenging process
Are you still in Sacramento?
If so I would love to visit with you.
I love wolves
This was great content. Thanks for sharing it.
A female wolf and two pups were spotted on Gaston ridge in Nevada County think they came through pl
Pumas , Sierra,crossed into Nevada county I have property in Graniteville Ca prime wolf /Grizzly habitat is on the border of Sierra and Nevada county
1st of all they are not California Gray wolves! They are Canadian wolf's! The California Gray was 80 pounds... The Canadian wolf is 180 pounds. I personally have seen wolves in the Roseville/Sacramento area For the last 8 years. The last one I saw was dead in front of a Classer county sheriff S UV. His nose was at 1 Side of the front and his back section was on the other side. Possibly 140 to 180 lbs the color was black by Seeno Avenue on Douglas boulevard
Oh look, another "this was not the wolf that was here" recycler. Let me guess, you heard that on whatever version of local news you have in your rural county? Or perhaps you read too much social media posts and Reddit seems like a good place to get your information? Either way, your logic is not your own and is deeply misinformed. The Canadian grey wolf is a grey wolf and all the past sub-species were grey wolves all with a 99.9% genetic match. As a professor from the Colorado State University put it- "the subspecies argument is a red herring at best". Just think on it, if it was that easy for the "Canadian" grey wolf to establish themselves after being gone for 100 years, why wouldn't they have had the same mobility in the past? Food for thought.
Gray wolves do not have nationalities. Our invisible political boundaries are meaningless to them. The species returning to California is the same species across the border in Canada. Canis (genus) lupus (species). The only other two choices are red wolves (Canis rufus) and the newly recognized eastern wolf (Canis lycaon). The "Canadian wolf" myth is nothing more than anti-wolf propaganda. As mentioned in the above video, the largest wolf ever weighed was under your 180 lb claim, and he had a belly full of meat amounting to 20 lbs or so. The largest. Not your average wolf weight, no matter the location on this planet.
The Southern Rockies Canine Project had been tracking wolves traversing from Banff National Park in Alberta, Canada to northwestern Montana and northern Idaho since its founding in 1987. This was one of the most extensive wolf research projects in all of North America. See: Pluie wolf. The reintroduction of gray wolves captured east of Jasper NP near Hinton, Alberta, and east of Williston Lake in British Columbia and released into central Idaho and Yellowstone NP, simply hastened a natural return that was already occurring. Gray wolves have been crossing the imaginary boundary that is Canada since well before the occupying culture of hominids created such a concept. Just prior to reintroduction, wolves were struggling to naturally reestablish themselves due to the poaching of such a vulnerable, minuscule population. Thus hands were forced to turn to this method in order to restore a keystone species.
Even Theodore Roosevelt during his explorations of the region, did not encounter the mythical pygmy wolves which the anti-wolf lot claim are closer in size and dimension to the persecuted coyotes that they also fawn over oh so much (sarcasm). To the contrary, he described the native wolves of the Northern Rocky Mountain states as the "long-toothed giants of their race." - Hunting the Grisly, Chapter VIII, Wolves and Wolf Hounds, published in 1893 by Theodore Roosevelt. The fact that reintroduction had to even be considered, should clue one in that this idea is irrelevant. Those who demonize the species are simply desperate to justify hatred, and it matters not how heavy the wolves are or even whether they were reintroduced or not. Example: the Great Lakes population. Never needed to be reintroduced, smaller subspecies that hybridizes with eastern wolves. Still demonized.
Further, I have access to every single Idaho Big Game Mortality Report for wolves killed during the 2011-2012 and 2012-2013 seasons (two of the very first three), and all the weights of those officially weighed by the Idaho Department of Fish and Game. These wolves are a source population. Females average 86 pounds, males 101 pounds. Not a significant difference between the two subspecies historically present, and they intergraded where they came together. Overtime their morphology will adapt to be an even better fit for the conditions in their more southerly territories, regardless. Same species, providing the same needed ecological function as they did historically. They were present for thousands upon thousands of years, and gone for less than a hundred.
WELCOME HOME WOLVES.
I heard wolves howling last night really close. I live in the Portola Senior Citizens apartments #27. A few minutes ago I looked out my bedroom window and saw BIG PAW PRINTS bigger than a dogs, right under my window and up against my outside wall. And it looks like more than one I am so excited!!!! I didn’t see them, but heard that beautiful howling. We are in Portola,in Plumas county. I am not telling anyone here, I don’t want them hurt. My daughter told me wolves killed 5 sheep where she lives in Loyalton, Ca.. We have a thick forest right here next to our apartment.
Keep in mind that this is a public comment section visible to everyone and anyone, including potential poachers. I found your location on Google Earth with ease. Consider editing out the name of your apartment complex or deleting the comment in order to not draw unwanted attention to yourself or any local wildlife. Thank you for caring. Be well.
The beckwourth pack has not been detected in 2022 I hope they are okay