In January 2018, a female gray wolf left her pack in Oregon and began a long, meandering journey in search of a new pack or a mate. Known as OR-54 to biologists who tracked her through a GPS radio-collar, the wolf wandered through California, briefly crossed into Nevada, and made two trips back into Oregon. She covered at least 8,712 miles, according to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. But then, in December of last year, her collar seemed to stop working.
A few weeks later, report Ryan Sabalow and Dale Kasler of the Sacramento Bee, the collar sent out a signal. Biologists traced the location and, to their dismay, they discovered that OR-54 had died.
“Unfortunately, what they found was her carcass,” Jordan Traverso, a Department of Fish and Wildlife spokeswoman, tells Maria Cramer of the New York Times.
In a statement, the department gave few details, saying only that it is “currently investigating the circumstances surrounding OR-54’s death.” But the statement did caution that “ray wolves are covered under both the Federal Endangered Species Act as well as the California Endangered Species Act” and “killing a wolf is a potential crime and subject to serious penalties including imprisonment.”
OR-54 is believed to have been three or four years old at the time of her death. It is not unusual for wolves to break off from their natal packs, in order to search for a new group or to form a pack of their own. But OR-54’s journey fascinated biologists because it was “extraordinarily long,” Misi Stine, outreach director at the International Wolf Center in Minnesota, tells the Times. She travelled further south in California than any wolf since OR-7’s return to the state nine years ago.
On multiple occasions, OR-54 crossed into the territory of the Lassen Pack, the only known wolf group in California, according to the Sacramento Bee. But for the most part, her journey appeared to be a solitary one.
But some experts say that OR-54’s lonely travels highlight the paucity of wolves in states like California, where fewer than a dozen of the animals are known to live. “I think the fact that she traveled so far,” tells Paulina Firozi of the Washington Post, “is an indication that we don’t have a lot of lone wolves for her to have met up with.”
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/after-8700-mile-journey-endangered-gray-wolf-found-dead-180974185