|
LISTEN TO THE AUDIO VERSION
|
Photo Evidence that the Indigo wolves had reproduced emerged last fall, based on trail camera photos captured in August. (ODFW)
EUGENE, Ore. – Oregon recognized an area between Highway 58 and Highway 138 in Lane and Douglas counties as an Area of Known Wolf Activity in March 2019.
Evidence that the Indigo wolves had reproduced emerged last fall, based on trail camera photos captured in August.
Now the wolves are formally a pack, according to updated maps published earlier this month.
The designation is expected to be part of Oregon’s next wolf report due out in April. The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife is currently conducting the annual winter count of wovles in the state.
The agency estimated the population at 137 wolves in 16 packs at the end of 2018.
Most of the wolves live in northeastern Oregon.
Only 3 packs – the Indigo, Rogue and White River packs – live west of Highways 97, 20 or 395.
The Rogue pack lives in parts of Jackson and Klamath counties in south central Oregon. The White River pack lives in Wasco and Clackamas counties and the Warms Springs reservation, east of Mount Hood.
The predator had been extirpated from Oregon. Bounty records suggest the state’s last known wolf was killed in 1947.
In 1999, wolves from Idaho began to make their way into Oregon. The state’s first pack was confirmed in 2008.
via Wolves in eastern Lane, Douglas counties recognized as new Indigo pack | KMTR