Someone shot an endangered wolf in Northern California. Will new rewards lead to killer?

OR-59 sedated by Oregon agency

Federal officials and an environmental group this week issued rewards totaling $7,500 for the unsolved 2018 killing of an endangered wolf in Modoc County, California’s first wolf poaching investigation since the predators returned to the state. On Dec. 2, 2018, Oregon wildlife biologists notified California officials that a black-furred yearling male they’d labeled OR-59 had traveled from a pack in northeast Oregon and crossed the state line into Modoc County. The biologists were able to track its movements because the wolf was wearing a GPS collar, which biologists had put around its neck a few months earlier when they’d trapped it for study in northeast Oregon. Three days later, the wolf was spotted by a rancher feeding on a calf, which investigators later determined may have died from pneumonia. Then, on Dec. 9, 2018, Oregon biologists received a “mortality signal” from its collar indicating the wolf had died, according to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. In the year since, California’s wildlife officers have revealed little about the case, including where OR-59’s body was found, how the wolf died or why they found its death suspicious. In a news release this week announcing a $2,500 federal reward, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service provided more details. The wolf was shot once with a .22 caliber center-fire rifle along County Road 91 near the small communities of Lookout and Bieber, the wildlife agency said. Officials urged anyone with information about the killing to call 916-569-8444. On Thursday, the environmental group, the Arizona-based Center for Biological Diversity, offered its own reward of $5,000...MORE