California is a leader in many areas including the protection of endangered species. Despite the fact disgraced President Trump took the gray wolf off the Federal endangered species act, the gray wolf is protected in California.
Excerpted from San Francisco Chronicle 10.4.2021
“We always knew wolves would come back. This is historic wolf habitat,” said Jordan Traverso, a spokeswoman with the state Department of Fish and Wildlife. “The track record of applying the right protections and management throughout the state has made it a hospitable place for wolves to roam again.”
In 2014, gray wolves were listed as endangered in California, which currently protects them from being hunted even after the Trump administration removed the species’ federal protected status last fall.
An Oregon-born lone gray wolf that made headlines after making his way through California, then disappearing in April when his transponder stopped working, has likely been spotted in Ventura County.
Called OR-93, the male wolf was born in Oregon in 2019 and fitted with a transponder before he traveled into the state in February and then headed south through the Sierra Nevada and eventually made it to San Luis Obispo County.
Last month, the Department of Fish and Wildlife received three separate tips of wolf sightings in northern Ventura County, and then officials found wolf tracks nearby. There’s no definite forensic proof that it’s OR-93, but the recent reports match the wolf’s description, according a statement released by the department Friday.
“OR-93 is pretty identifiable,” said Amaroq Weiss, referring to the wolf’s bright purple radio collar that stands out against his light gray fur. A senior wolf advocate at the Oakland conservation organization Center for Biological Diversity, Weiss has worked in wolf protection for about 25 years. “He is frankly the first radio-collared wolf wearing a purple collar I know of.”
Gray wolves used to roam California freely before being hunted into extinction almost 100 years ago. They began reappearing in the state about 10 years ago, a long-term result of being awarded federal endangered species status in 1973. Previously there hadn’t been a wolf in the southern part of the state since 1922, when one was spotted in San Bernadino County, or in the Central Coast for even longer, said Weiss.
“We always knew wolves would come back. This is historic wolf habitat,” said Jordan Traverso, a spokeswoman with the state Department of Fish and Wildlife. “The track record of applying the right protections and management throughout the state has made it a hospitable place for wolves to roam again.”
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