A grey wolf is seen within the Sequoia National Forest.

Michelle Harris, Samantha Winiecki-Love, Ryan Slezak and Colibri Ecological Consulting/by way of the California Department of Fiash and WIldlife

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Michelle Harris, Samantha Winiecki-Love, Ryan Slezak and Colibri Ecological Consulting/by way of the California Department of Fiash and WIldlife

A grey wolf is seen within the Sequoia National Forest.

Michelle Harris, Samantha Winiecki-Love, Ryan Slezak and Colibri Ecological Consulting/by way of the California Department of Fiash and WIldlife

California wildlife officers say they’ve confirmed a brand new grey wolf pack within the southern Sierra Nevada Mountains.

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife mentioned Friday the pack was present in Tulare County — the farthest south a pack of wolves has been detected within the state in additional than a century.

In July, the division had acquired reviews of wolf sighting within the Sequoia National Forest, roughly 200 miles south of the nearest-known pack in northeastern California.

CDFW visited the world and located tracks, scat and hair, and their DNA evaluation discovered that every one 12 collected samples got here from grey wolves. The evaluation discovered the brand new pack has at the least 5 feminine wolves not beforehand detected in California.

One of the wolves is a direct descendant of OR7, a wolf that crossed into California in 2011, turning into the primary detected in practically a century to cross into the state from Oregon earlier than returning.

Gray wolves used to roam most of North America earlier than being hunted, trapped and pushed out of many of the continental U.S. by the early 1900s.

But wolves have been making a sluggish comeback in lots of western states, together with California, which has at the least three confirmed packs largely within the state’s far north.

Wolves stay protected federally by the Endangered Species Act.