Fresh photos snapped in the wilds of southern Oregon confirm that the state’s famous wandering wolf, OR-7, has at least three mouths to feed.
The images show two gray pups in about the same area where last month John Stephenson, a wolf coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, captured pictures of a black pup. Stephenson, who’s been monitoring feeds from OR-7’s radio collar, suspects the litter is even bigger. They usually range from four to six pups.
But getting a family portrait is tough. The cameras, located in a remote area of the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest, are stationary and can only capture what runs in front of them.
“We were hoping they would lead the pups out in front of the camera and we’d get a nice shot,” Stephenson said. “But they didn’t pose for us.”
Biologists have a keen interest in OR-7. Born in the Imnaha pack in northeast Oregon, he spent three years searching for a mate in a journey that took him as far as California. The birth of the pups marks the first known wolf reproduction in the Oregon Cascades since the 1940s.
Source: Oregon’s wolf OR-7: Fresh photos confirm pack has at least 3 pups | OregonLive.com