Gray Wolf in Oregon Zoo; photo by Suzanne Phillips (cyborgsuzy on Flickr CC)
It was fun while it lasted, but like many who become disillusioned with the shallow glitz of celebrity, Journey is in need of real friends. Those don’t exist in California, not for wolves anyway. OR-7 won’t find a pack or a lone mate, since he is the only wild wolf known to set foot in California since the 1920s.
Of course, since Journey is tracked by satellite thanks to a GPS collar, it’s easy to know where he goes. It’s possible that there may be (or have been) other wolves in California that we don’t know about.
From California’s Tehama County Daily News:
After traveling 900 miles in California, OR-7 crossed the state line from Siskiyou County and back into Oregon on March 1, the Department of Fish and Game reported.
Biologists for the department have described his behavior as dispersal, where a young wolf seeks to find a mate or another wolf pack.That search has not been resolved for OR-7 in California and his next movements cannot be predicted with any certainty, the department reported.
It remains possible he will return to California in the future.
Not that there are many wild wolves in Oregon either. There may be as few as 24.
In total, Journey has travelled 2,000 miles since leaving his pack last September, finding his way back to areas he’s already been by marking them with urine, which is what I usually do.
Read more in the Los Angeles Times.
