Sightings of a lone wolf caught on trail cameras in May and July spurred talks about the gray wolf possibly returning to California after being gone for almost a century. On Thursday, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) confirmed with photographic evidence that a new resident pack has been spotted in the northern part of the state.
Images of the pack, dubbed the "Shasta Pack," were caught by trail cameras showing two adults and five pups in Siskiyou County. The pups appeared to be just a few months old. Wildlife officials said considering the close distance of the areas where the lone wolf and the pack were sighted, it is possible that the lone wolf was actually part of the new resident pack.
"This news is exciting for California," CDFW director Charlton Bonham said. "We knew wolves would eventually return home to the state and it appears now is the time."
Gray wolves were last spotted in California in 1924. They used to roam all the way from San Diego and the Coastal Range to the Nevada border. However, because of bounty laws enacted to kill wolf populations in California, coupled with continuing habitat loss, there were no more gray wolves left in the state by the 1920s, according to National Geographic.
In 2011, a lone wolf from Oregon stepped onto Californian soil, inciting hopes that he may bring back the gray wolves to the state after many decades. However, OR7, as the wolf was called, did not stay in California; he went back to Oregon after 15 months, where he is now the breeding male of the "Rogue Pack."
The California Fish and Game Commission voted to include the gray wolf in the list of endangered species under the California Endangered Species Act in June 2014. The Federal Endangered Species Act of 1973 also lists the gray wolf as endangered. It is therefore illegal to "harass, harm, pursue, hunt, shoot, wound, kill, trap, capture or collect" gray wolves in the state according to law, CDFW says.
Wolves are fully protected-no hunting, no permits to hunt. Keep a close eye out if your camping nearby.
— Cal Fish & Wildlife (@CaliforniaDFW) August 20, 2015
"We have been given a second chance to restore this iconic species to a landscape they had been missing from for nearly one hundred years," Jamie Rappaport Clark, Defenders of Wildlife president and CEO, said in a press release. "We must seize this opportunity to forge new partnerships to help wolves live in harmony with people and livestock in their California home."
