[pct-l] Wolves in the Sierra

[Jereen Anderson]

The year was 1958, 4th of July weekend. I was doing a solo backpack crossing of the Sierra from Whitney Portal to Mineral King. I had camped at Kern Hot Spring and was continuing down the Kern the next morning planning to go up Rattlesnake Creek on my way to Mineral King. While hiking along the Kern south of the hot spring I saw what I thought to be Coyote pups in the talus to the west and about 25'off the trail. I was going to take a picture. Then the mom appeared. She was very threatening to protect her pups. While still facing her I slowly backed away. She also backed away and she and the pups quickly disapeared into thier talus den. Under the circumstances I did not think to take the picture. A better photographer would have got the shot. 
 
I was very familiar with Sierra coyotes prior to this sighting. She was NOT a coyote. But I thought wolves were extinct in the Sierra, so I reported the incident to a Ranger. What I learned is that I had seen an American Red Wolf. Because of a rodent overpopulation in Sequoia National Park, and fewer predators than needed ( he said some of the natural predators had gone outside the park during winters and been killed by ranchers) the park service had decided to introduce three pairs of Red Wolves as an experiment (I think he said three pairs - can't rember for sure). The ranger was glad to learn of a sighting of a litter. He would report this sighting to the biologist in charge of the experiment. 
 
I have no idea if there are still wolves in the Sierra. There was at least one litter resulting from mated pairs introduced late in the 1950's.
 
Ed Anderson/MendoRider