#or-7

[daily-wolves]

Source , USFWS , OR-7 “Journey”

[art-of-tek]

MarInk Day 11: Wander

This isn't actually fanart of any media or an OC, but rather a drawing of a real animal! This is OR-7, also nicknamed "Journey". He is a real wolf walked a whopping 1600 kilometres, and he was also the first wolf in a long time to return to both California and western Oregon. You can read more about him here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OR-7

I didn't just choose OR-7 for today's prompt because he "wandered" a lot, though. A children's book based on OR-7's journey was actually written a few years ago, called "A Wolf Called Wander". In this book they named OR-7 "Wander" rather than Journey or his designation, which is why I chose him from this prompt. The word Wander is intrinsically connected to OR-7 to me.

The head came out a little too big but eh what can you do.

[rjzimmerman]

What is one wolf worth to the world? Ten years ago, a wolf called OR-7 showed us all.

If you want to learn about one wolf and how that one wolf won over so many people to protect wolves generally, then you want to read this essay published in Medium about OR-7 (who also had the name, “Journey”). I’ve posted lots of stories about OR-7 over the years, so I take it for granted that you know about him. He traveled thousands of miles looking for his perfect girlfriend, had several litters and now has grandpuppies all over the place. He also was behind a change in California law, when wolves were added to state protection under the California Endangered Species Act. I’m posting some of the maps and a few photos (including some grandpuppies) from this story; no paywall if you want to dive in and read about him.

A little tribute to OR-7 from the author of this story:

OR-7 was loved. He inspired the writing of multiple books, two documentaries and a stop-motion animated film, as well as a poem I wrote which singer-songwriter Geoff Bradley turned into lyrics for a song he composed. Bradley’s beautiful performance of the song, which he named “Journey of a Lone Wolf,” is hope-filled and haunting, fully capturing the sense of possibility borne by OR-7 and by every single wolf who leaves their pack in search of their destiny.

I’ve posted the video of his song, “Journey of a Lone Wolf,” at the bottom of this post.

[rjzimmerman]

By the time off his death, OR-7 had become an unwitting ambassador for his species.

This remote camera photo taken May 3, 2014, shows the wolf OR-7 on the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest in southwest Oregon s Cascade Mountains. State and federal wildlife agencies said Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2015, they have designated OR-7, his mate and their pups the Rogue Pack, for their location in the Rogue River drainage in the Cascades east of Medford. It’s the first pack in western Oregon and the ninth in the state since wolves from Idaho started swimming the Snake River in the 1990s. (AP Photo/Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, File)

Excerpt from this Op-Ed from the Mercury News:

Nearly a decade ago, the wolf known as OR-7 first set foot in California – the first wild gray wolf in the Golden State in 87 years. Few knew then that this young traveler who trekked 700 miles from northeastern Oregon would go on to change the fate of his entire species here in California.

Dubbed OR-7 because he was the seventh wolf to be radio-collared by biologists in Oregon, the wolf would become like a celebrity in California and beyond. By the time state biologists announced in April that he had likely died of natural causes, OR-7 had become an unwitting ambassador for his species.

Through his life and life story, the public learned that wolf packs are families. We learned that wolves travel long distances in search of love. We learned that all the old animosities that nearly eradicated wolves in the first place still exist and still carry political power.

And most importantly, OR-7 showed us that the only way to ensure wolves can return to lands they once called home is through the existence of strong federal and state laws to protect them.

[urbanadventureleague]

When bike tours get combined with something more.

If you’ve read the Urban Adventure League blog (TM) long enough, it should go without saying that I like the whole notion of bicycle touring. And I like it so much that I do such silly things like write a guide on touring or post things to the touring subforum of Bikeforums.net. And I really like it when people make a bike tour something more than “just a bike tour”. Now don’t get me wrong, I…

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[never-a-president]

OR-7 was never president of the United States.

[wolveswolves]

Feds try to collar OR-7 again

November 4, 2016 - State and federal biologists are setting out traps nightly in hopes of catching and collaring gray wolf OR-7 or his mate so they can regain the tracking capabilities that allowed the world to watch his long journey for a mate.

Biologists are using padded foot-hold traps and baiting them with a foul-smelling concoction to capture one of the wolves so they can attach a GPS-emitting radio collar before heavy cold sets in.

John Stephenson from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says he sets four traps daily in areas of western Klamath County where OR-7 and his Rogue Pack were photographed by a trail camera as recently as Oct. 23 (see picture above).

"It's not really the number of traps that matter," Stephenson says. "It's finding out where they're going to be and getting the traps out there before they get there.

"It's a waiting game," he says.

Once a collar has been reattached, Stephenson can regularly check their whereabouts, enabling biologists to alert ranchers when the pack nears their field stock.

The pack last month attacked and killed four steers in Klamath County's Wood River Valley.

The traps are checked each morning. If captured, the wolf will be tranquilized, fitted with the new collar and released, Stephenson said. When temperatures dip low enough to put a trapped wolf at risk, he will stop for the season, he says.

"If we're unsuccessful, we'll have to wait until spring," Stephenson says.

Stephenson says he would prefer to collar OR-7 or his mate, because they are more likely to remain with the Rogue Pack, while pups could leave to find territory of their own.

The trapping effort coincides with the five-year anniversary of OR-7's trek from northeastern Oregon to Northern California before he returned to Southern Oregon and settled in eastern Jackson and western Klamath counties to start his pack.

OR-7 was a young member of Oregon's Imnaha pack in the far northeast corner of the state when he was collared in February 2011, eight months before he left the pack in a "dispersal" trek in search of a mate and new territory.

He traveled south and west until he crossed the Cascade crest in late October, becoming the first wolf in western Oregon since 1937. On Nov. 13, 2011, he crossed into Jackson County for the first time from Klamath County, then ventured to Northern California, where he was the Golden State's first known wolf since 1924.

OR-7 eventually found his mate and in 2014 fathered the first wolf pack in southwestern Oregon in more than six decades.

He and his mate have had seven pups, and one was discovered last week to have left Oregon and found a mate in Northern California's Lassen County.

A second pup that had an injured front right paw has not been seen of late and is believed to be dead.

That would put the Rogue Pack at up to seven wolves.

Even though OR-7's GPS collar has not worked since summer 2015, the wolf's whereabouts continue to draw interest from around the world.

"That first story went all over the place, and people are still interested in him," says Michelle Dennehy, spokeswoman for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife's Wolf Program. "He's the most well-known wolf in Oregon."

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