Wolves Return to Southern California After More than a Century

Biologists believe that a pack of gray wolves has settled into the Giant Sequoia National Monument in the southern Sierra Nevada range north of Los Angeles, marking the return of wolves to the area after more than a century.

The Los Angeles Times reports:

Now, biologists are cautiously optimistic that California’s southernmost wolf pack, which includes the female’s four offspring — two males and two females — will adapt to its new environs some 130 miles north of Los Angeles.

Yet the sudden appearance of the so-called Tulare Pack is already generating friction among Central Valley livestock owners and the managers of ambitious fuel reduction projects underway in and around areas of Sequoia National Forest and Giant Sequoia National Monument scorched by recent wildfires.

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DNA analysis confirmed that the adult female in Tulare County is a direct descendant of OR-7, which crossed the state line in 2011 to become the first known wild wolf in 90 years to make the Golden State part of its range.

Mountain lions are already known in the mountains north of Los Angeles, and even in the mountians of Los Angeles County itself, though they are vulnerable to being killed in collisions with vehicles on freeways.

Most populations of gray wolves in the 48 contiguous states of the U.S. are protected under the Endangered Species Act, except for the Northern Rocky Mountain population and “threatened” populations of Minnesota gray wolves.

Amid concerns about global environmental issues like climate change, the return of wolves to California, even to Southern California, is a sign that other, more practical environmental improvements are having an impact.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the new biography, Rhoda: ‘Comrade Kadalie, You Are Out of Order’. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.

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