Wednesday, March 13, 2013

California's lone gray wolf trots back to Oregon

OR7 in a November 2011 photograph snapped by a hunter's trail camera in Oregon.
OR7 in a November 2011 photograph snapped by a hunter's trail camera in Oregon. (Associated Press / March 13, 2013)

    OR7, the peripatetic gray wolf who spent most of last year in California, has said goodbye to the Golden State -- at least for now.

    The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife reported Wednesday that the young male crossed the state border into Oregon’s Klamath County on Tuesday evening.

    Biologists and the public have followed the wolf’s long journey from his home pack in northeastern Oregon with signals from his satellite tracking collar. He has wandered more than 3,000 miles since he left his pack in a thus far futile search for a mate and other wolves.

    When he initially crossed into California in December 2011, he was the first wild wolf recorded in the state in nearly 90 years.  After loping back and forth over the state border for a few months, he remained in California’s sparsely populated northeast corner.

    Known to loop back to areas he visited weeks earlier, OR7 could as easily head south again into California as go farther north in his native state.

    For more on the wolf's California stay, read Gray wolf takes to California but is unlikely to find a mate here.

    source

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