State wildlife officials say a new pack of gray wolves has been identified in Northern California, becoming the third pack to establish itself in the state in the last century.
A new pack of gray wolves has been identified in Northern California, becoming the third pack to establish itself in the state in the last century, state wildlife officials and conservationists said.were first spotted in May on a trail camera in Plumas County near the California-Nevada state line, after the tracks of two wolves were detected earlier this year in the same area, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife said.
. Gray wolves are native to California but disappeared in the 1920s. Most were killed through hunting or to control predation on other animals.Center for Biological DiversityThe species is protected under the California Endangered Species Act. Killing a wolf is a potential crime subject to serious penalties, including prison time.“It’s one of our worst nightmares,” Rick Roberti of Roberti Ranch in southeast Plumas County told SFGate.
In January, the Trump administration removed endangered species protections from gray wolves, ending long-standing federal safeguards and putting states and tribes in charge of overseeing the predators. Wisconsin was the first state to resume hunting of wolves. A study released this week by University of Wisconsin scientists says that as many as one-third of Wisconsin’s gray wolves died at the hands of humans in the months after the federal government announced it was ending legal protections.