Offspring of famed gray wolf found dead in Shasta County

California wildlife officials are investigating the death of an endangered, female gray wolf that was found in Shasta County on Wednesday after traveling thousands of miles.

The collared wolf, OR54, was the daughter of OR7, a wolf that made headlines for being the first wild gray wolf to live in California in 100 years. OR7 eventually moved back to Oregon, where he found a mate and had several litters of pups.

One of those pups, OR54, left Oregon in

January 2018 and radio signals showed she had traveled more than 8,000 miles through portions of Butte, Lassen, Modoc, Nevada, Plumas, Shasta, Sierra, Siskiyou and Tehama counties, wildlife officials said. She traveled into Oregon twice, but spent most of her time in California, officials said.

Officials said they are investigating the cause of OR54’s death and warned that killing a wolf is a “potential crime and subject to serious penalties including imprisonment.” Gray wolves are protected by the Federal Endangered Species Act and the California Endangered Species Act. “CDFW takes very seriously any threats to this recovering wolf population,” officials said.

OR54 was 3 to 4 years old, officials said. When fish and wildlife biologists collared her in October 2017, she weighed 83 pounds, officials said.

She was born in 2016 into Oregon’s Rogue Pack to OR7 and left her pack two years ago.

In September 2019, officials said she crossed to the south side of Interstate 80 and briefly entered Nevada before returning to California the next day.

Wildlife officials said OR54’s GPS collar stopped working in December. From October through December 2019 alone, officials said, the wolf traveled more than 1,000 miles at roughly 13 miles per day.

“Her travels represent the southernmost known wolf locations in the state since wolves returned to California in 2011,” wildlife officials said. Amaroq Weiss, a wolf advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity, called OR54’s death a “tragic development for the early stages of wolf recovery in California.”

“Like her dad, the famous wolf OR7 who came to California years ago, OR54 was a beacon of hope who showed that wolves can return and flourish here,” Weiss said. “Her death is devastating, no matter the cause.”

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service OR54, a gray wolf, was the daughter of OR7, the first wild wolf to enter the state in 100 years.