wolf-pups.jpg
Remote camera photo from July 21, 2013, documenting three pups in Oregon's newly formed Mount Emily pack.
(Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife)
LA GRANDE -- Two gray wolves discovered earlier this year in eastern Oregon's Blue Mountains between Pendleton and La Grande now have at least three pups, reported the
.
A remote camera documented the trio of youngsters scampering across a road on July 21 , but there could be more pups, said ODFW spokeswoman Michelle Dennehy. Their parents were first spotted in April in the Mount Emily Game Management Unit of Union County, northwest of Summerville.
Dennehy said biologists so far this year have confirmed reproduction in seven known Oregon wolf packs: in the Imnaha, Minam, Mount Emily, Snake River, Umatilla River, Walla Walla and Wenaha packs. The exact number of pups remains unknown.
"Wolf packs fluctuate so much during the year," she said. "We will do our next official count at the end of the year."
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Last May, the department's census revealed Oregon had at least 46 wolves, said Dennehy. Shortly afterward, a male gray wolf known as OR-7, famous for his 750-mile trek across Oregon to Crater Lake National Park and south into California,
. OR-7 currently is believed wandering the back country of Jackson and Klamath counties, said Dennehy.
"He's been seen a few times, but has not been observed with a mate," she said.
OR-7 began his trek on Sept. 10, 2011 near Joseph in Wallowa County. A Eugene-based environmental group called Oregon Wild sponsored a children's contest that drew entrants from around the world and changed OR-7's name to Journey.
OR-7 became the first wild wolf since the 1940s to take up residence in the Oregon Cascades, and the first in almost 90 years to be recorded in California.