Fresno County has a rare furry visitor from Oregon. Please don’t shoot him, or run him over
A furry four-legged tourist from north-central Oregon recently wandered into Fresno County.
Don’t shoot him, or run him over. Please.
OR-93, a nearly 2-year-old male gray wolf outfitted with a GPS collar, has been tracked “in agricultural areas in central Fresno County,” according to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.
The news is both exciting and slightly concerning. While historically native to California, wolves likely haven’t ventured this far south in more than a century. The last thing we want is for OR-93 to turn up dead on our doorstep.
“The closer he travels to human populations brings him closer to roads and private property,” said Amaroq Weiss, a wolf advocate with the Center for Biological Diversity.
“Anytime they get to an area where there are humans, chances increase they can get killed with a car or killed with a gun. Wolves do best in areas that have low road density for exactly that reason.”
Born in White River, Oregon, southeast of Mount Hood, OR-93 was fitted for a tracking collar in June 2019 before dispersing from his home pack. In early February he crossed the border into Modoc County and kept heading south.
Over recent weeks, CDFW biologists tracked the gray wolf from Mono County through parts of Tuolumne, Mariposa, Merced and Madera counties before turning up in Fresno County. Specifically, central Fresno County on the west side of Highway 99. (Yes, he evidently crossed a six-lane freeway or found a way beneath it.)
What is OR-93 looking for? The same thing juveniles of many species desire.
“It’s really common for wolves of 1½ to 2½ years old to leave their birth pack and set off on their own looking for mates and territory — and sometimes they travel really long distances just to do that,” Weiss said.
“It’s a little surprising he traveled this far because there were other wolf packs he could have run into along the way.”
So not only is OR-93 looking for love, he’s doing it in a place where there probably isn’t a female wolf for hundreds of miles.
Tough break, kiddo.
Don’t mistake gray wolf for a coyote
For reasons that are totally understandable, the CDFW won’t disclose more details about OR-93’s whereabouts.
Not only would that sort of information encourage poachers — shooting wolves is illegal in California except in the defense of human life — the biologists themselves aren’t certain due to a delay in collar readings coupled with the fact that wolves are constantly on the move.
“Essentially we know where he has been in about the last 12 hours as long as the collar readings are coming in,” CDFW spokesperson Jordan Traverso said in an email. “Sometimes it doesn’t work due to weather or really remote locations.”
CDFW made the wolf’s general location known in order to alert the public so people don’t mistake him for a coyote. (OR-93 has a purple collar, which helps identify him.) The wardens have also notified local government officials and ag commissioners.
In the upper reaches of California, gray wolves have been a controversial subject since the predators began crossing the Oregon border a decade ago. The debate pits advocates who believe wolves bring balance to nature by picking off sickly deer and elk against ranchers concerned about their livestock.
That’s not a topic worth litigating here. A single wolf tracking in Fresno County is more happy novelty than cause for alarm.
‘Wolves are really fearful of humans’
Except, of course, for those concerned OR-93 could meet the same fate as OR-54, a female gray wolf from southern Oregon that made a well-documented 8,700-mile journey through California and Nevada only to turn up dead in Shasta County last year.
Or OR-59, a male shot and killed in Modoc County in December 2018 that has been the subject of an intense CDFW investigation chronicled in detail by The Sacramento Bee. Or the seven-member Shasta pack that disappeared without a trace in 2015.
Let’s hope OR-93, who has visited 15 California counties (and counting) during his meandering journey, doesn’t encounter an overzealous farmer. Or make a habit of mixing with speeding traffic.
It’s one wolf, by himself and 700 miles from home. We’re far more of a threat to him than he is to us.
“Wolves are really fearful of humans,” Weiss said. “They don’t want to have anything to do with us. Your chance of even seeing one is just exceedingly rare.”
If you are lucky enough to see what appears to be a large coyote, except with a purple collar, consider yourself fortunate. If driving, slow down. And only take aim with a smart-phone camera.
Please.
This story was originally published March 24, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
