California Gray Wolf Is Still A Loner; State Not Sure It Wants To Protect It

The California gray wolf is still a loner, as far as anyone can tell.

There’s only one known to be running around the Golden State, but according to a Newsmax report, the California Fish and Game Commission can’t decide whether they should protect it. The state officials will make the animal, which wandered into Northern Cali from a pack in Oregon, wait another 90 days before they decide whether a gray wolf that is still a loner ought to be protected.

Before the celebrated gray wolf – known as OR-7 – made his way south into Northern Cali, California hadn’t had a verifiable sighting in the wild since 1924, according to a Fox News report. Californians intentionally killed off the grey wolf population back then to make room for ranching and livestock. As an earlier article in the Inquisitr points out, many of the state’s ranchers are not particularly thrilled about the prospect of the state of California protecting the grey wolf – even if it is still a loner – or allowing the species to make a comeback in the region.

It’s precisely the fact that the California gray wolf is still a loner that presents the rub over whether or not the state will list it as endangered. The thing is, the state doesn’t have gray wolves. California only has a single gray wolf, still a loner. Because the state has not officially had any grey wolves since the ’20s, some believe that they cannot classify the species as endangered. Rather, in their eyes, the grey wolf is making a comeback. As one opponent of protecting wolves in California pointed out:

“The species is not at risk of disappearing in the state of California. It is, rather, reappearing.”

As Newsmax reports, not all Californians are against the return of the grey wolf or feel the state needs to be so nit-picky in their attempts to classify the animal’s status. They quote Amaroq Weiss of the Center for Biological Diversity saying:

“There’s no requirement under the state act that you have a breeding population or a continuous presence of the species. Wolves aren’t gods and they aren’t devils. Wolves are pretty magnificent and they have a key role in the ecosystem.”

That role has gone on unfulfilled for 90 years.

What do you think? Should wolves be protected or denied protection in the state based on the fact that the California gray wolf is still a loner?