The believed-to-be first free-ranging wolf in California since the 1920s, who broke off from a pack in Oregon last September, has had his first known encounter with a human in California. State wildlife biologist Richard Shinn snapped this picture of the gray wolf known as OR7 Tuesday in Modoc County. Until now, the only other photo, in fuzzy black and white, was from an unmanned trail camera.
Add: State Fish and Game program manager Karen Kovacs tells AP that Shinn and two others encountered OR7 after arriving to warn ranchers that GPS signals showed that he was in the area. As they stopped to look over a sagebrush hillside, “There, all of sudden, out pops a head, and there he is. He appeared very healthy.”
Image: Richard Shinn/ California Department of Fish and Game
