Eight newborn wolf pups — offspring of the only wolf pack in California — are holed up these days in a top-secret location somewhere in the northern part of the state. Exactly where, the Department of Fish and Wildlife isn’t saying.
The agency sent out the lupine birth announcement Monday. Wildlife biologists were thrilled to learn of the fourth consecutive annual litter for the state’s lone pack.
“This is incredible news,” said Amaroq Weiss, a wildlife biologist and wolf advocate for the Center for Biological Diversity. “This is an endangered species that humans once tried to wipe from the face of the Earth. These little ones give hope to everyone who wants to see wolves reestablished.‘’ The wolf den, state officials said, is located somewhere in Plumas or Lassen county — a region with a combined area of 7,300 square miles. The secrecy is to keep the state’s rarest critters safe from wolf hunters who would do them harm, as well as from wolf admirers who would disturb the new family’s privacy.
The pups — four male, two female and two gender unknown — were fathered by a different male than the wolf that fathered the three previous litters, Weiss said. The pack now numbers 14, including four adolescent wolves from previous litters. There are many pressures that might make a female wolf decide to change partners, as other Californians are known to do. Wolves fall victim to hunters, disease, accidents, traps and unsuccessful attempts to take down prey, according to biologists. The wolf that fathered the litters in 2017, 2018 and 2019 was observed on wildlife cameras to have developed a limp from an unknown cause — possibly a steel trap, Weiss said. That might have enabled the new male wolf to muscle in on his turf — and his female — this year...
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My, my, we must not disturb their privacy. Hunters do harm, but nothing about "wolf admirers" altering their behavior, affecting their habitat or disbursing their prey. No, no, they just disturb their privacy.
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