The first wild gray wolf to enter California in almost a century is roaming the forests of eastern Shasta County looking for a mate that he may never find.
The lone male wolf, known as OR7, has traveled more than 100 miles into California through sagebrush and juniper, past ranching and irrigated agriculture into a forested area with better habitat, cover and more wild prey, state wildlife officials said.
The 2-year-old wolf, which is wearing a GPS collar that transmits his location to researchers every six hours, undoubtedly wants to start his own pack, but the nearest female is about 300 miles away in Oregon. The 90- to 100-pound predator has nevertheless created a furor throughout the state, with environmentalists packing binoculars and ranchers cocking hunting rifles.
"We're being very conservative in terms of revealing his location," said Mark Stopher, an ecologist and the senior policy adviser on environmental matters for the director of the California Department of Fish and Game. "It's not just the danger of him being shot, but we also don't want him to be harassed by people driving around looking for him just to see him. He's got a lot going on, and we don't know what kind of condition he is in."
Wolves have been feared and revered in almost equal parts for centuries by virtually every culture that has come in contact with them. Native Americans and many other admired the mysterious canines for their cunning.
Wolves were exterminated in much of Europe and in the lower 48 states largely because of all the negative huffing and puffing. The last wild wolf seen in California was trapped and killed in 1924.
Environmental scientists insist wolves are good for the ecosystem because they control elk and deer populations and prevent overgrazing of riparian habitat, which, in turn, helps improve water quality and regenerates fish, river otter and beaver populations.
Many California ranchers, on the other hand, still fear them. After hearing that a wolf had crossed the state line, several California ranchers threatened to employ the "three S's" -- shoot, shovel and shut up -- to get past U.S. Endangered Species Act protections.
"This is introducing a predator into a community where there are families," said Marcia Armstrong, a Siskiyou County supervisor whose constituents are mostly farmers and ranchers. "It may be romantic for some people, but it's not romantic if you have to live with it."
Stopher said wildlife biologists have investigated dozens of encounters with aggressive wolves, and in almost every case the wolves were provoked or had become too accustomed to humans or their food.
OR7 -- which is also being called "Journey" since the conservation group Oregon Wild held a naming contest -- came from a pack in Wallowa County, Ore., one of four packs that migrated from Idaho after the mid-1990s introduction of Canadian wolves to Yellowstone National Park and central Idaho. There are now more than 1,600 wolves in the Northern Rocky Mountains.
Wolves are uncannily intelligent and cooperative hunters, but they sometimes take the easy way out and kill livestock. OR7's former pack has killed 20 cows and calves over the past two years. The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife killed his father and brother, who were implicated in the attacks.
California's wolf has zigzagged more than 800 miles through Oregon and steered completely clear of humans, Stopher said. He has been photographed once, using a remote camera.
"There is nothing in his behavior or actions that indicate he is going to get anywhere near people. In fact, all of the evidence is to the contrary," Stopher said. "He hasn't been around people, houses, garbage, and there has been no livestock depredation."
