By Damon Arthur
Todd Nash has seen the video of OR-7 — the gray wolf living in eastern Shasta County — and gives it two thumbs-down.
Nash, a rancher from Wallowa County in northeast Oregon, said the video depicts OR-7 as nonthreatening to cattle.
But Nash said OR-7 killed two of his calves in May 2011, before the gray wolf left his pack and began his well-documented, solo journey southwest through Oregon and eventually into Shasta County.
“It’s far from what takes place here,” Nash said, referring to the video, which shows OR-7 trotting across a field. At one point OR-7 approaches some cattle, and an Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife range rider climbs aboard an ATV to shoo the wolf away from the livestock.
“The range rider in that video looked like it was pretty effective. It was anything but,” Nash said.
The video was shot by Marc Bales of Bend, Ore. The video was recently posted on the Internet and can be seen on Redding.com.
OR-7 crossed from Southern Oregon into California on Dec. 28, making history as the first wolf in the state since 1924. He traveled south into Shasta County in early January but then headed east into Lassen County.
Last Saturday the wolf turned west and crossed back into Shasta County.
Michelle Dennehy, a spokeswoman for Oregon’s Fish and Wildlife department, said OR-7 has not been implicated in any cattle kills since he began wearing a collar with a GPS device that enables wildlife officials to monitor his movements.
Dennehy said OR-7 got a collar in February 2011, so OR-7 would have been wearing a collar when Nash reported his two cattle killed in May. An investigation summary on the wildlife agency’s website concludes that it was possibly a wolf kill but it is unknown for sure.
“However, it is very likely (OR-7) was involved in livestock losses” before he got a GPS collar, Dennehy said.
There are 21 confirmed kills from the Imnaha wolf pack between spring 2010 until Thursday, Dennehy said. OR-7 belonged to the Imnaha pack before he headed south in September.
An Oregon Fish and Wildlife “Livestock Depredation Field Investigation Form” dated May 27 that Nash had sent to the Record Searchlight says that in relation to Nash’s dead calf, OR-7 was the closest radio-collared wolf but also says the cause of death is “Possible wolf/unknown.”
Nash said U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services concluded his calf was killed by a wolf.
Nash reported another wolf kill on May 1, which was investigated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. John Stephenson, a wolf coordinator for the agency, said Nash was reimbursed for the cost of a calf killed by a wolf that may have been OR-7.
“OR-7 certainly could have been involved in that, along with other wolves,” Stephenson said.
He said GPS information from the wolf’s collar put OR-7 about a half-mile from the dead calf. The GPS readings are taken hours apart, and OR-7 could have killed the calf between readings, he said.
“The same issue applies, that you don’t know where they are in between those readings,” Stephenson said. There have been no confirmed reports of cattle killed by OR-7 since he left his pack, Stephenson said. It isn’t likely the wolf, who turns 3 in April, will kill cattle while living alone. Most wolves kill in packs and OR-7 is traveling alone, he said.
Mark Stopher, a senior policy adviser with the California Department of Fish and Game, said earlier this week there have not been any confirmed reports of OR-7 killing any cattle in California.