Reward Offered For Wolf Killed In Southern Oregon

 

OR-25, a wolf that has been spotted in Northern California, was killed in southern Oregon. A $5,000 reward has been offered to help solve the crime. (ODFW)

A wolf that has been tracked in Northern California was killed in Oregon recently, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is offering a $5,000 reward to help determine who was responsible for the wolf’s death.

Here’s the Herald and News of Klamath Falls, Oregon with more:

The male gray wolf, identified as OR-25, was found dead near Fort Klamath on the Sun Pass State Forest. Originally part of the Imnaha Pack in northeast Oregon, the male wolf dispersed the pack in 2015, traveling to Klamath County by August of that year.

For the past two years OR-25 has spent much of its time in Klamath County, periodically relocating to Lake and Jackson counties in Oregon, as well as Modoc and Siskiyou counties in California.

The wolf was collared as a yearling, and was 4-1/2 years old at the time of its death. Recent wildlife camera images of OR-25 showed the possibility of the wolf pairing with a non-collared female.

OR-25 had been involved in two depredation incidents, the first in Klamath County in the fall of 2015, and one in Jackson County in February of this year. Though its collar batteries had been fading, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife biologists had continued to track the wolf, which spent much of this year in the Wood River Valley and Williamson Valley north of Klamath Falls.

It is a violation of the Endangered Species Act to kill a gray wolf, which is listed as endangered in the western two-thirds of Oregon. It is also a violation of Oregon state game laws. The Oregon State Police and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) are investigating the incident. According to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife’s (ODFW) December 2016 population count, there are a minimum of 112 wolves in the state, a 75 percent increase since December 2013.