There’s a new wolf pack in California, wildlife officials confirmed

A new gray wolf pack has been confirmed in the southern Sierra Nevada, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife said in a Friday press release, making the wolves the southernmost pack in the state.

These gray wolves are more than 200 miles away from the nearest known pack in northeastern California, the agency said. Native to California, gray wolves were eradicated from the state in the 1920s, so each rare wolf sighting is investigated by the CDFW.

The wolves were spotted in the Sequoia National Forest in Tulare County in July, the CDFW said. The sighting was reported to the agency and, upon investigation, the CDFW found wolf tracks and other indicators of wolves.

Wolf presence was confirmed using 12 scat and hair samples, which the agency was able to verify belonged to gray wolves via DNA analysis, the CDFW said.

The new pack includes at least five wolves that weren’t previously identified in the state, including two male and two female offspring. Another adult wolf was identified as a descendant of the first wolf identified in recent history in California, named OR-7.

OR-7 was a male wolf that crossed into California from Oregon in 2011 and made the state part of his range after traveling back and forth between the two states, the agency said on its website.

The DNA samples indicated that the breeding male wolf of the four offspring came from the Lassen Pack, the CDFW said.

Gray wolves are protected under the California Endangered Species Act, which prohibits anyone from harming, killing or capturing them.