wild wolf pups in California!

Nice!! a terrific step in terms of wolf reintroduction to the state. Hope nobody kills them like what happened in Arizona.
 
I see this page is in need of a much needed update so I’m gonna give it the one it deserves.
Since the coronavirus pandemic, 3 radio collared males from Oregon have ventured into the state, 2 new packs/groups have formed in California, and they currently have the highest concentration of wolves in recent years. I’ll be going based off of the order of events

Lassen Pack
In 2020 there was 2 breeding females in the Lassen Pack. The Packs original breeding female had 5 pups and and her daughter LAS09F produced 4 pups. LAS09F was born in 2018 in the Lassen Pack. The pack has had a new breeding male since 2019 as the presence of the original breeding male has not been confirmed since June 2019. The presence of wolf LAS01F is currently unknown. Their is currently 6 wolves in the Lassen Pack and their was indication of breeding in 2021.

OR-85
OR-85 is a 2 year old male wolf from the MT Emily Pack in Northeastern Oregon. He was radio collared by Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife in February 2020. The wolf struck out on his own in June and entered California on November 3rd 2020. In December of 2020 OR-85 found a mate and has started the Whaleback Pack.

Whaleback Pack
The Whaleback Pack formed in Late 2020 after OR-85 found a mate in California. The females origins are unknown but their was indication of denning from this pack in 2021.

OR-93
OR-93 is a 2 year old male wolf from the White River Pack in Oregon. The wolf entered California on January 30th, 2021 and reentered the state on February 4th 2021. The wolf from February till April traversed through California’s central Sierra Nevada’s, was the first wolf near Yosemite in 100 years, showed up in Fresno County, crossed 3 dangerous freeways which are Highway 99, Interstate 5, and US Highway 101, and was the first wolf on the Central Coast in 200 years. His status is currently unknown as his collar has failed. He was collared in June 2020 and currently a search is underway to find him.

OR-103
OR-103, a male wolf born in 2019 or 2020 entered California on May 4th 2021. This animal has remained in the state since but his Pack of origin is currently unknown.

Beckwourth Pack
The Beckwourth Pack was confirmed in May 2021 and consists of 3 wolves. One of the wolves is LAS12F, a 2 year old female from the Lassen’s 2019 litter. The age, sex, and genetic origin of the other 2 wolves is not yet known and field work is ongoing.

https://nrm.dfg.ca.gov/FileHandler.ashx?DocumentID=193316&inline

Dispersing Gray Wolf Travels from Oregon to the Central Sierra Nevada

Where is OR-93? Here's the latest on missing gray wolf from California wildlife officials

Two Siskiyou County gray wolves dubbed 'Whaleback Pair'

Oregon wolf OR-85 appears to have found mate in Northern California

OR-103 is latest gray wolf to take epic journey from Oregon to California

https://nrm.dfg.ca.gov/FileHandler.ashx?DocumentID=192023&inline


https://nrm.dfg.ca.gov/FileHandler.ashx?DocumentID=193333&inline
 
I'm sooo jealous of California over this! I wish they'd bring red wolves back to Texas but noooo, it will make the ranchers saaaaaad.
 
Two of California’s Three Wolf Packs Confirmed to Have Pups

https://nrm.dfg.ca.gov/FileHandler.ashx?DocumentID=193683&inline

https://nrm.dfg.ca.gov/FileHandler.ashx?DocumentID=193684&inline

California now has multiple breeding packs for the first time in 100 years! Out of the states 3 packs 2 of them had offspring this year! So with that said let’s dive into it!

Lassen Pack
The Lassen Pack now consists of 9 wolves. 3 adults/yearlings and 6 pups born in 2021. The new breeding male is now identified as LAS16M and the new breeding female is LAS09F. LAS09F was born to the Lassen Pack in 2018 to the packs original alphas. The breeding female LAS01F disappeared in Fall 2020. The pups born this year are OR-7s great grandkids, the 1st wolf that entered California in 90 years.

Whaleback Pack
The Whaleback Pack consists of 8 wolves. A breeding pair and their 6 pups born in 2021. The breeding male is OR-85 from Northeast Oregon’s MT Emily Pack and the breeding female is WHA01F from Southwestern Oregon’s Rogue Pack.

Beckwourth Pack
The Beckwourth Pack consists of 3 wolves and did not reproduce offspring in 2021 however it’s important to note field work is ongoing. Genetics collected from a 2nd wolf in the pack indicate it isn’t from California.

Dispersing Wolves
Male wolf OR-103 continues to roam California. He obtained a foot injury in June but it’s healed since then. He entered California on May 7th 2021.

Despite the search OR-93 was not found.

genetic results collected from an uncollared dispersing wolf in May 2020 in Modoc County indicate it’s a male from the Walla Walla Pack In Northeast Oregon
 
Nice to see, though they better tread carefully. Lots of people in those areas not happy to have them back.
 
Great Argus said:
Nice to see, though they better tread carefully. Lots of people in those areas not happy to have them back.
Click to expand...

Probably an unpopular opinion but I will say this though. While there’s definitely people who do NOT like seeing them back, I do know as far as human tolerance goes that it’s slowly getting better. It was a rancher that discovered the Beckwourth Pack in California, California’s 3rd wolf pack in a century. It was a rancher that discovered OR-85 was traveling with another wolf, which later ended in the 2 of them creating the Whaleback Pack in California. Yes California Department of Fish and Wildlife themselves confirmed the sightings. However I do find it a good sign more ranchers in the last year have reported their sightings to California Department of Fish and Wildlife and have worked tirelessly using non lethal methods with wolves to protect their livestock. We have a lot of work still but progress wise I think California has taken steps in the right direction. Oregon for instance has not. The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife recently killed 2 wolf pups in the Lookout Mountain Pack over livestock conflict.
 
California Wolf Update!
Lassen Pack
The Lassen Pack survived the Dixie Fire. The Dixie Fire is California’s second largest wildfire in California History and is currently the largest wildfire in the US. Among the wolves who survived the fire: LAS16M the breeding male,
LAS09F the breeding female, a yearling from 2020, and at least 4 out of the 6 pups (1 black, 3 gray,) also survived. It’s unknown how the wolves survived.

Beckwourth Pack
Initially it was believed the Beckwourth Pack was negatively impacted by the Dixie Fire. This actually turned out not to be the case. The wolves additionally use Sierra County in addition to Plumas.

Whaleback Pack
No major activity to report other than 8 wolves have still been counted. The pack consists of 2 adults and 6 pups

Kern County Wolf
A gray wolf was spotted on May 15th in Southwestern Kern County. The sighting was announced yesterday by California Department of Fish and Wildlife with the sighting being confirmed. The animal seen in the video was collared is believed to be OR-93, the 2 year old male who traveled a 1000 miles south from Late January to early April in California. He disappeared on April 5th in San Luis Obispo County. Authorities started immediately searching the area

'It's total luck’: California wolf pack survived destruction of the Dixie fire

CDFW News | Information Received Regarding Gray Wolf in Kern County

https://nrm.dfg.ca.gov/FileHandler.ashx?DocumentID=194900&inline
 
California Wolf Update!

California Department of Fish and Wildlife wolf specialist and biologist Kent Laudon recently did a presentation about California’s wolves and released new footage of the Beckwourth Pack, the Whaleback and Lassen Packs 2021 litters, and OR-85, the breeding male of the Whaleback Pack.

Lassen Pack: a 5th pup is believed to have survived the Dixie Fire making this the 8th Lassen Pack wolf to survive the fire. The pack had 6 pups born in 2021 to the packs dominant breeding male LAS16M and breeding female LAS09F. The pack now numbers 3 adults/ yearlings and 5 pups. Currently the breeding female LAS09F is the only wolf that’s collared in the pack.

Whaleback Pack: during a September Count, biologists discovered that the Whaleback Pack actually had 7 pups this year. The pack now numbers 2 adults and 7 pups. The breeding male OR-85 is currently the only wolf that’s collared in this pack.

Beckwourth Pack: little information is still known about this pack but recently the wolves have become the next victims to suffer the wrath of the Dixie Fire. Biologists recently released footage of the pack during this presentation and it showed 2 gray wolves.

OR-103: OR-103 has continued to remain in California since his arrival on May 4th 2021. His genetic origin is still not known.

OR-93: biologists are still searching for the him.

Other: there has been an increase of wolf sightings in California, biologists believe there’s a small number of uncollared wolves in the state as well based off of recent evidence. The wolf population in the state currently sits at around 2 dozen.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=n12eu41YKtM
 
How long would it be until one wolf travels to Los Angeles county and maybe Orange County?

Question:
What's the history of wolves in the California counties of Los Angeles, Orange County, and San Diego?
 
Thomas said:
How long would it be until one wolf travels to Los Angeles county and maybe Orange County?

Question:
What's the history of wolves in the California counties of Los Angeles, Orange County, and San Diego?
Click to expand...

So California Department of Fish and Wildlife has had to mostly rely on historical records. They do know gray wolves were as far as south as Los Padres National Forest. The last gray wolf that was killed in Northern California was in Lassen County in 1924.

As of how far it’ll be for a wolf to travel to where OR-93 is would be a long and Incredibly dangerous one. OR-93 has made a historic trek in an epic search for a mate and territory of his own and crossed some of California’s most dangerous freeways among them being highway 99, interstate 5, and US Highway 101. For a wolf to make it that far south to where he is would have to cross similar areas that OR-93 did. I honestly don’t think gray wolves are gonna make it to Orange County anytime soon because the the sub species that’s there now biologists don’t believe twere ever historically present there but what was there was Mexican Gray Wolves.

However I will say this though. There’s a lot more wolves in California than ever before. Just last year even the state only had one pack and now the state has 3 packs. There’s currently 2 dispersing wolves (OR-93 most likely and OR-103) that were radio collared in Oregon but migrated to California to find mates and territory of their own. Dispersing Wolves tend to follow the scent trail of other wolves so never say never is what I’ve learned.

Gray Wolf
 
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John Marchwick said:
So California Department of Fish and Wildlife has had to mostly rely on historical records. They do know gray wolves were as far as south as Los Padres National Forest. The last gray wolf that was killed in Northern California was in Lassen County in 1924.

As of how far it’ll be for a wolf to travel to where OR-93 is would be a long and Incredibly dangerous one. OR-93 has made a historic trek in an epic search for a mate and territory of his own and crossed some of California’s most dangerous freeways among them being highway 99, interstate 5, and US Highway 101. For a wolf to make it that far south to where he is would have to cross similar areas that OR-93 did. I honestly don’t think gray wolves are gonna make it to Orange County anytime soon because the the species that’s there now (canis lupus) biologists don’t believe they were ever historically present there but what was there was Mexican Gray Wolves.

However I will say this though. There’s a lot more wolves in California than ever before. Just last year even the state only had one pack and now the state has 3 packs. There’s currently 2 dispersing wolves (OR-93 most likely and OR-103) that were radio collared in Oregon but migrated to California to find mates and territory of their own. Dispersing Wolves tend to follow the scent trail of other wolves so never say never is what I’ve learned.

Gray Wolf
Click to expand...
Mexican Gray Wolves are Canis lupus, just a different subspecies.
 
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