We got melancholy news the other day about the gray wolf known as OR-54, for Oregon, where
In the last three months of 2019, she journeyed more than 1,000 miles through six California counties, searching. She also made two trips back to Oregon and a short foray into Nevada. In another age and on two legs, she would have been known as a great explorer, like John C. Frémont, The Pathfinder, but more able. She was a great American.
In December, her collar went silent. At the beginning of February, biologists at the California Department of Fish and Wildlife were alerted that she had stopped moving in Shasta County, about 200 miles north of Sacramento and south of Mount Shasta, which marked the southern end of the Cascade Range she would have followed out of Oregon and which could have been her polestar. On Feb. 5, they found her body.
It is not yet known how she died or whether her death is being investigated as a crime. Under federal law it is forbidden to shoot, injure or kill gray wolves. There are now an estimated 15-20 of them running wild in California – so her carcass goes to dust and her story goes on.
