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CDFW Captures And Collars Two Gray Wolves In Siskiyou County

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CDFW News Release

two technical assistance workshops in Yreka on March 30 details below

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) has announced the safe and successful capture and collar of two gray wolves in Siskiyou County. The two wolves were captured March 17, fitted with satellite collars, measured and sampled for DNA and disease surveillance, and safely released back to the wild.

“The capture of these wolves is fantastic since we lost the only functioning satellite collar last summer, and ground capture efforts since then have been unsuccessful,” and “A lot of people have worked hard to make this happen and we’re excited about the new collars and data. We’re already seeing interesting movements on agriculture lands and sharing that information with local folks to install fladry and other deterrent measures around cattle pastures.”

Kent Laudon, a senior environmental scientist and CDFW’s wolf specialist

One of the captured wolves was OR85, a four-year-old black, 98-pound male originally collared by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife in February 2020 in northeastern Oregon. OR85 dispersed from his natal pack in 2020, making it to Siskiyou County in November of that year. OR85 paired with a gray female wolf that had dispersed from a pack in southwestern Oregon to form the Whaleback Pack in Siskiyou County. The pair produced litters of seven pups in 2021 and eight pups in 2022.

The Siskiyou County wolf OR85, the breeding male of the Whaleback Pack

Capture teams, using a contracted helicopter and capture crew and fixed-wing aircraft from CDFW’s Air Services Unit, were able to locate the wolves through intermittent signals coming from OR85’s original collar, which was thought to be non-functioning. CDFW crews removed OR85’s original collar and replaced it with a new unit.

CDFW photos. photo OR85

The other wolf captured and collared was a black,
97-pound, yearling male from the 2021 litter.

The capture and collar effort, which began last month, marks the first time CDFW has used helicopters to capture and collar gray wolves. The capture and collar of gray wolves is an important management and research tool, along with other tools and methods, used throughout the West to help monitor populations, understand landscape use patterns and minimize livestock conflicts.

Each morning, under optimal conditions, the satellite collars will transmit four new locations to CDFW since the previous day’s download. Ground capture attempts to collar additional wolves will resume later this spring.

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) and the Siskiyou County Department of Agriculture will host two technical assistance workshops in Yreka on March 30 to help livestock producers impacted by wolf presence to navigate the application process required for CDFW’s Wolf-Livestock Compensation Grants Pilot Program.

The workshop details are:

Technical Assistance Workshop I
When: Thursday, March 30, from 10 to 11 a.m.
Where: Siskiyou County Department of Agriculture, Conference Room 525, South Foothill Drive, Yreka
What: One-hour presentation with Q&A session and one-on-one assistance available immediately after presentation.

Technical Assistance Workshop II
When: Thursday, March 30 from 1 to 2 p.m.
Where: Siskiyou County Department of Agriculture, Conference Room 525, South Foothill Drive, Yreka
What: One-hour presentation with Q&A session and one-on-one assistance available immediately after presentation.

California’s 2021-22 state budget allocated $3 million to fund CDFW’s Wolf-Livestock Compensation Grants Pilot Program. Grant funding is currently available to producers for confirmed livestock loss due to wolf attacks and for implementing non-lethal deterrents to minimize wolf-livestock conflicts. A third compensation option known as “pay-for-presence” will soon become available for those producers whose operations have been impacted economically by wolf presence near their herds.

No reservations are needed for either technical assistance workshop. Questions in the meantime can be addressed to [email protected].

Other CDFW wolf management efforts include capturing and collaring wolves for population monitoring, landscape use patterns, and research to minimize livestock conflicts; deploying and training in deterrent tools and methods to minimize livestock depredation; and ongoing collaboration with livestock producers, agricultural interests, university researchers, environmental organizations and other parties interested in developing wolf conservation and management strategies.

Link to CDF&W Press Release

Learn more about gray wolves in California by visiting CDFW’s gray wolf web page.

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