A famously far-ranging gray wolf is found dead in Southern California

By Nathan Rott

Published November 24, 2021 at 5:41 PM EST

The Oregon-born wolf known as OR93 near Yosemite, Calif. in February 2021. The wolf thrilled biologists as it journeyed far south into California, but was found dead after apparently being struck by a vehicle.

Wildlife officials say a far-ranging gray wolf, the first to tromp across Southern California in more than a hundred years, has been found dead near a roadway a little more than an hour's drive north of downtown Los Angeles.

It appeared to have been struck by a vehicle.

The male wolf, named OR93 when it was outfitted with a GPS collar by wildlife officials in its home state of Oregon, left its pack near Mount Hood two years ago. It gained followers and fans in the wildlife community as it traveled south, crossing interstates and highways to parts of California that hadn't seen a wolf since 1922.

California, like much of the U.S., is wolf habitat. Pre-colonization, large predators covered much of the continent before being hunted, trapped and killed to near extinction by European settlers. The fragmented populations that survived are now being suffocated, in many areas, by an ever-growing web of roadways.

The Department of Transportation estimates that 365 million animals are killed on U.S. roads every year, more than the total number of people in the country. Recovering populations of large carnivores like wolves, which are trying to repopulate areas, are at particular risk.

Gray wolf populations are recovering across many parts of the northern U.S. But the species, like many, are threatened by roadways and human development.

Young male gray wolves are known to travel far distances after leaving their packs. The wanderlust has a biological purpose.

By traveling far from its family, a wolf is more likely to find a mate with a different genetic makeup. Inbreeding is believed to have caused a population crash of gray wolves on Isle Royale in Lake Superior. Efforts to take grizzly bears off the endangered species list in the Northern Rockies have been stymied because of legal challenges based, in part, on "species connectivity."

In Southern California, wildlife officials have found abnormalities in an inbreeding population of mountain lions, hemmed in by the region's busy roadways.

Early next year, the state will break ground on an overpass spanning six lanes of the 101 Freeway designed to help the large cats and other wildlife branch out, after a multi-year push by wildlife advocates. Similar efforts are underway around the country, and the larger effort to give wildlife safe passage just got a big boost in President Biden's recently passed infrastructure bill.

It designates $350 million over the next five years for state, local and tribal governments to construct bridges or underpasses for wildlife. Another $400 million will go towards the removal of obstructions like dams, which stifle fish and invertebrate populations.

"The construction of wildlife crossings will reduce wildlife-vehicle collisions and is a key conservation strategy to help wildlife survive impacts from climate change and development," said Mike Leahy, director of wildlife and hunting and fishing policy at the National Wildlife Federation.

More than a million species are at risk of extinction globally, many within decades, because of human activities. World leaders are gathering next year to approve a plan for slowing the biodiversity crisis. Aggressive action is needed to slow the collapse of nature, said Elizabeth Maruma Mrema, executive secretary of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity.

"Do we want to avoid another COVID-19?" she told NPR, last year. "We either conserve and protect nature, biodiversity, or it will make us suffer as we do now."