Eight of California’s wolf packs produced pups this year, at least 42 of them by the state’s conservative count, and a lone wolf of unknown origin has turned up in Lake County, well west of any established pack. Those are the headlines from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s July through September wolf update.
The report lists 10 active packs. The Whaleback pack in eastern Siskiyou County led the way with a minimum of nine pups, while Ashpan, Grizzly, Ice Cave, Long Valley and Whitehorse each confirmed at least five. Lassen and Harvey added at least four apiece, and the Diamond and Interstate packs showed no sign of reproduction.
One pack is off the books. CDFW no longer considers the Tunnison pack in central Lassen County active after biologists confirmed its adult female bred with the Harvey pack’s male this summer and has stayed with Harvey since. The Tunnison male has not been detected.
The Ice Cave pack, which ranges across western Lassen, northern Plumas, eastern Shasta and northern Tehama counties, confirmed five pups and absorbed 26 days of ground capture effort without a working collar to show for it. That pack’s southward drift is why Tehama County ranchers have been getting briefings this year…