-----------------------------------------------------------------------Last wolf of the East Mojave: Pauline Watson - standing, right - trapped this whitish-colored wolf while getting coyotes near their New York Mountains ranch, on a trapline set at Rock Spring, Cedar Canyon Road, in what is now Mojave National Preserve, 1920s. She did not want to kill it, and some folks from the city tried to take it to a zoo, but it died on the way to Barstow. Photo from the Pauline (Watson) Cote Collection.
CALIFORNIA FISH AND GAME
Calif. Fish and Game 77 (2):79-65 1991
GRAY WOLVES IN CALIFORNIA: THEIR PRESENCE AND ABSENCE
ROBERT H.SCHMIDT
Department of Forestry and Resource Management
University of California
Berkeley, CA 94720'
Gray wolves, Canis lupus, probably occurred In the Central Valley, the western slope of the Sierra Nevada foothills and mountains, and in the Coast Ranges of California until the early 1800s, although their
population size is unknown and may have been small. Fossil records and early recorded observations attest to the presence of gray wolves in these areas. In addition, the proximity of other wolf populations east of the Sierra Nevada and north of California, the extensive historical range of gray wolves world-wide, and the presence of large ungulates as potential prey provide indirect evidence that wolves inhabited this
region.
If gray wolves were more abundant and widely distributed 300 years ago, it is possible that there were fewer coyotes, C. latrans, than at present. Community-level dynamics between canids (including the
San Joaquin kit fox, Vulpes macrotis) may have been much different than they are today.
There is some question about the abundance and distribution of gray wolves in the recent past in California. Hall (1981:932) and Mech (1970:31) considered most of North America as historical range of gray wolves, excluding only the southeastern part of the United States and most of California. Paradiso and Nowak (1982:461) concurred, stating "There are no precise records for most of the state of California;
the wolf may have been there, but was eliminated at an early time... ." Grinnell (1936:1 14) speculated that wolves "... occurred far and wide through northern and eastern portions of [California]; no available evidence indicates presence within historic times in west-central California or in southern California west of deserts." Ingles (1965:342) stated "It seems likely that a few wolves remain in the high central
Sierra Nevada... ."
wolves, C. l.furlongi, were native to California prior to human colonization (Nowak 1979). Fossils have been discovered in Shasta, Kern, Los Angeles, and San Bernardino Counties. Specimens collected from Rancho La Brea in Los Angeles County date 10,000 + years before present (C. A. Shaw, George C. Page Museum, pers. comm.).
There are at least two important reasons for discovering the recent distribution of gray wolves in California. Periodically, there is discussion about the reintroduction of wolves into the state. The expansion of gray wolves into northern Washington in 1990 (Anon. 1990) may increase interest in this controversy. Whether or not this is ever acceptable or practical, a first step would be to determine if wolves ever occurred at a particular location. Second, if wolves were present in historic times and were relatively or locally abundant, they may have had significant impacts on community structure of ecosystems where they occurred. The absence of wolves may assist in explaining patterns of abundance and distribution in species present today.
I searched through the writings of early explorers, naturalists, and others that may have come across gray wolves in Califom ia. Although my search was not exhaustive, I did go through >50 accounts of life in early California (Schmidt 1987). Sightings of gray wolves were assumed valid when either the writer was a trained naturalist orwhen the writer specifically distinguished between gray wolves, coyotes, and foxes. The latter rule was deemed important because coyotes in the mountains attained a larger size than lowland coyotes and often were mistaken as "wolves." As an example, explorer F. W. Beechey (1941:65) wrote of his travels from 1826-1827 in the Monterey Bay area that "... wolves and foxes are numerous, and the cuiotas, or
jackals, range about the plains at night... ." I considered this a probable sighting of gray wolves.
1750-1850 Records
Clear records exist from the middle 1750s to the middle 1850s. Pedro Pages (Priestly 1937) explored the Coastal Range from San Diego to San Francisco in 1769 and made numerous references to wolves, coyotes, and foxes. For example, in 1769 while traveling through the San Diego area, Fages noted that "In this territory there are to be seen, besides a number of other land animals, deer, antelope, conies, hares without number, wildcats, wolves, some bears, coyotes, and squirrels of three kinds" (Priestley 1937:12).
Russian explorer Von Kotzebue (1830) described two species of "wolves" as he explored the San Francisco Bay into the Sacramento-San Joaquin Valley. From his descriptions, these were most likely gray wolves and coyotes. Additional sightings by other early explorers were made in the Monterey Bay area (1826), near the San Gabriel Mission in southern California ( 1827), and in Humboldt County (1828) (Schmidt 1987). The pattern of these sightings (Fig. 1) is indicative of the pattern of settlement in California, with sightings predominant in the coastal areas being settled.
1851 -1900 Records
From 1851 through 1900, the distribution of sightings changed significantly. Wolves were reported in northern Shasta County and in the central Sierra Nevada
These observations included wolves sighted by naturalists accompanying railway survey crews and reports by explorer/trappers (Schmidt 1987). Newberry (1857:37) reported that "Though much less common than the coyote', the large grey wolf is found in all the uninhabited parts of California and Oregon. ... All the large wolves seen by any of our party were grey, and all the skins which I saw in the possession of Indians or whites were also grey, and it is probable that the white and black varieties are never found in California."
Price (1894) noted the observations of a trapper named Dent who reported seeing gray wolves in the central Sierra Nevada above 6,000 feet in elevation.
1901 - Present Records
During this period, naturalists began requiring more than visual sighting records for confirmation of the presence of species (Fig. 1). The only museum specimens of recent wolves in California were collected during this period (Table 1). A wolf, C. /. youngi, was trapped in the Providence Mountains (San Bernardino County) in 1922, and another specimen, C. I. fuscus, was trapped in Lassen County in 1924 (Grinnelletal. 1937:527). Grinnell etal. (1937:530) were convinced of additional sightings in Modoc County. Young (1964:55) reprinted U. S. Forest Service estimates of gray wolf numbers in six National Forests for 1939. These estimates were: Lassen (16), Tahoe (4), Eldorado (12), Stanislaus (6), Angeles (5), and Rogue
River (5). However, he concluded that it was questionable whether any wolves still survived in California.
Analysis
When these sightings are combined, it appears that gray wolves originally occurred throughout California. For this survey, a single sighting of a wolf in a diary has the same weight as a sighting of a large pack of wolves. Thus, the distribution picture is rather coarse-grained. It is significant that as the settlement of California progressed inward from the coast, sightings ceased from the settlement and livestock production areas and were reported only in more remote locations.
Gray wolves probably occurred in the Central Valley , Coast Ranges, and the Sierra Nevada until the early 1800s. Elk, pronghom, and deer (Cervus, Antilocapra, and Odocoileus spp.) were abundant in early California (McCullough 1969), providing a potential prey base for wolves. Grizzly bears, Vrsus arctos, also were abundant (Hicks 1983), and may have competed with wolves for available prey.
Historical gray wolf densities are unknown. I suspect the early livestock industry, using guns, traps, and poisons, was very effective in eliminating both the grizzly and the wolf. There is evidence that intensive predator control was responsible for the temporary extirpation of coyotes, a much more resilient species, from selected areas in the western United States in the early 1900s (Schmidt 1986). Gray wolves, Canis
/mpm5, probably were extirpated in California in the mid- 1920s (Williams 1979). The few wolves collected since then apparently have been released captive animals (for example, McCullough 1967, Anon. 1989).
The impact of the extirpation of the wolf on the community structure of California's wildlife can be speculative at best. However, there are indications that the impact may not have been minor. Elsewhere I have indicated (Schmidt 1986) that strong interspecific interactions occur between canids occupying similar habitat. These interactions are strong enough that the addition or removal of one canid species often has been recommended as a management technique to impact another canid species (Schmidt 1985, 1986). For example, coyote introductions have been proposed to reduce populations of red foxes, Vulpes vulpes, in areas where foxes are having an impact on endangered bird populations. It is reasonable to assume that, if
wolves were present historically in California, their removal allowed coyotes to move into new areas or to reach higher population densities. This may explain the high mortality rate (up to 50% of marked animals) of San Joaquin kit fox, Vulpes macrotis mutica, caused by predators, chiefly coyotes (O'Farrell 1984; also noted for . m. arsipus by O'Farrell and Gilbertson 1986). Thus, O'Farrell's (1984:208) statement that coyote predation on kit foxes "... appears to be a natural risk" may not be the case.
Such interactions obviously are complicated by the extirpation of the grizzly, the alteration of California's flora (especially the introduction of alien annual grasses), the interruption of historical wildfire cycles, and past and present human impacts. Predator-prey dynamics, competitive interactions, and other community-level phenomena 200 years ago certainly would have been different with gray wolves as part of the biota.
Additional research would be useful in refining the known distribution of gray wolves in California. This research could include additional reviews of historical literature and early mission records, analysis of Native American artifacts (including dating when possible), and additional paleontological searches. With this information, the role, impact, and place of gray wolves in California's landscape can continue to be evaluated.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
B. R. Stein and D. Bell were helpful in locating specimens of California C. lupus,
and C. A. Shaw kindly provided information on C. lupus fossils from Rancho La
Brea. M. White, E. Loft, and two anonymous reviewers provided the manuscript with
thoughtful critiques. I gratefully acknowledge this assistance.
LITERATURE CITED
Anonymous. 1 989. Community was not just crying wolf. Press Democrat (Santa Rosa, Calif.), 16 April 1989, p. 87. Anonymous. 1990. Two gray wolf packs discovered in northern Washington.
Endangered Species Technical Bulletin, 15(6):6. Beechey, F. W. 1 941 . An account of a visit to California, 1 826-'27. Grabhom Press,
San Francisco, California. 83 pp. Grinnell, J. 1 936. Mammal fauna of California. Univ. Calif. Publ. Zool., 40:1 14. J. S. Dixon, and J. M. Linsdale. 1 937. Fur-bearing mammals of Calif ornia: their natural history, systematic status, and relations to man. Vol. II. Univ. of Calif. Press, Berkeley. 777 pp.
Hall, E. R. 1 981 . The mammals of North America. Vol. II. John Wiley and Sons, New York. 1271 pp.
Hicks, J. 1 983. Grizzlies ruled California before human settlement. OutdoorCalifornia, 44(4):13-16.
Ingles, L. G. 1 965. Mammals of the Pacific states. Stanford Univ. Press, Palo Alto, Calif. 506 pp.
McCullough, D. R. 1967. The probable affinities of a wolf captured near Woodlake, California. Calif. Fish and Game, 53:146-153.
. 1 969. The tule elk: its history, behavior, and ecology. Univ. Calif. Pub. Zool., 88:1-209.
Mech, L. D. 1 970. The wolf: the ecology and behavior of an endangered species. Univ. of Minn. Press, Minneapolis. 384 pp.
Newberry, J. S. 1 857. Report upon the zoology of the route. Pages 35-1 1 (Part IV, No. 2) in Reports of explorations and surveys, to ascertain the most practicable
andeconomicalrouteforarailroadfromthe Mississippi Rivertothe Pacific Ocean,
Vol. VIII (U.S. Department of War). Beverley Tucker, Printer, Washington, D. C.
Nowak, R.M.I 979. North American Quaternary Canis. Univ. of Kansas, Monog. Mus. Nat. Hist., No. 6. 154 pp.
O'Farrell, T. P. 1984. Conservation of the endangered San Joaquin kit fox, Vulpes macrotis mutica, on the Naval Petroleum Reserves, California. Acta Zool.
Fennica, 172:207-208. , andL. Gilbertson. 1986. Ecology of the desert kitfox, Vulpes macrotis arsipus,
in the Mojave Desert of southern California. South. Calif. Acad. Sci., 85:1-15.
Paradiso, J. L., and R. M. Nowak. 1982. Wolves. Pages 460-474 in J. A. Chapman and G. A. Feldhamer, eds. Wild mammals of North America: biology, management, and economics. Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, Baltimore.
Price, W. W. 1894. Notes on a collection of mammals from the Sierra Nevada fVlountains. Zoe, 4:315-332.
Priestly, H. 1. 1 937. A historical, political, and natural description of California by Pedro Pages, soldier of Spain. Univ. of Calif. Press, Berkeley. 83 pp.
Schmidt, R. H. 1985. Controlling arctic fox populations with introduced red foxes.
Wiidl. Soc. Bull., 13:592-594. . 1 986. Community-level effects of coyote population reduction. Pages 49-65 in J. Cairns, Jr., ed. Community toxicity testing. ASTM STP 920. Am. Soc. for Testing and Materials, Philadelphia.
.1987. Historical records of gray wolves in California. WOLF!, 5(2):31-35.
Von Kotzebue, 0. 1 830. A new voyage round the world in the years 1 823, 24, 25, and 26. Vol. II. Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, London, England. 363 pp.
Williams, D. F. 1 979. Checklist of California mammals. Ann. Carnegie Mus., 48:425- 433.
Young, S. P. 1 964. Their history, life habits, economic status, and control. Pages 1385 in S. P. Young and E. A. Goldman, eds.. Wolves of North America. Dover Publ., Inc., New York.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment