For the first time in over a century, a wolf was seen in L.A. County. The 3-year-old female made her way south, after leaving her pack in Plumas County in northern California last spring, according to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. Her 10 month journey has been tracked by wolf specialists, who say her over 300 mile journey to northwest L.A. County is notable. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re part of our California heritage, and it\u2019s just an exciting thing to see them come into their native and natural habitats,\u201d said Jacob Keeton, director of education engagement at the California Wolf Center. \u201cEven though that part of L.A. County is probably about as far south as they would have historically ever been.\u201d<\/p>\n
The wolf, named BEY03F, was born into a pack that consisted of only her parents and other wolf pups in her litter. This forced her to disperse and find a suitable mate, according to Kent Laudon, the former senior environmental scientist specialist for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW), who identified her pack. <\/p>\n
Last spring, experts tracked the wolf as she moved 200 miles south from her pack. She then joined California\u2019s southernmost pack, the Yowlumni pack. She was unable to assimilate socially and likely co-existed with the pack, Keeton said. He continued that like humans, wolves are social animals driven by their need to find a mate.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhenever we go somewhere, we don\u2019t look to just survive. Where can we thrive? Where can we reproduce? Where can we persist and have a life?\u201d Keeton said. \u201cShe probably saw that there are wolves here, but it\u2019s not necessarily, for me, [that] this is a close pack.\u201d<\/p>\n
Before the grey wolf\u2019s arrival, its species had been completely erased from most of the United States, including California, by the mid-1940s due to widespread eradication efforts, according to the National Park Service.<\/a> <\/p>\n Laudon said the wolves in California came from reintroduction efforts in Yellowstone and Idaho in the late 1990s. Wolves, who naturally disperse from their packs to find new mates, eventually came to Northern California in 2011. <\/p>\n Cort Klopping, an information officer for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, said that the biologists he works with view the wolf as a \u201cnatural correction\u201d after their populations were killed off a century ago.<\/p>\n \u201cBecause of human involvement, they were gone for a long time, so as far as the biologists are concerned, it\u2019s seen as a success, right?,\u201d Klopping said. \u201cIt\u2019s nature kind of coming back to where it technically belongs.\u201d <\/p>\n Keeton said he is excited to see the wolves come back, but that overcoming the stigma humans have around wolves will be hard.<\/p>\n \u201cA history of wolf conservation in the world is a history of human tolerance,\u201d Keeton said. \u201cAnd so as wolves go into these historic, natural habitats that they\u2019ve been in the past,there are a little bit of growing pains of how we can coexist.\u201d<\/p>\n