A lone female gray wolf who walked more than 8,700 miles to find a mate has been found dead, having never met the wolf of her dreams.
Known to the researchers as OR-54, the wolf twice returned to her parents in Oregon, each time on her own, before striking out on a cross-country trek in search of love.
“When wolves get to one and a half or two years old, they are striking out from their birth pack, they are out there looking for mates and territory of their own,” Amaroq Weiss, a biologist at the environmental not-for-profit Center for Biological Diversity, told The Guardian.
Weiss and her colleagues tracked OR-54 using a radio transmitter collar. They saw her walk an average of 13 miles a day, reaching as far south as Nevada before heading back toward Oregon.
“She covered more than 7,646 miles after leaving the Rogue Pack. OR-54 traveled widely in northeastern California, through portions of Butte, Lassen, Modoc, Nevada, Plumas, Shasta, Sierra, Siskiyou and Tehama counties,” the California Department of Fish and Wildlife reports. “In late September 2019, she crossed to the south side of Interstate 80 and briefly entered Nevada before returning to California and crossing back to the north side of the highway the following day.”
During the course of her search, OR-54 left her marking on trees throughout the western US, hoping to attract a potential suitor.
“It’s pee-mail,” says Weiss. “But the fact that OR-54 never found a mate and settled down gives us info that there aren’t a lot of wolves in that area.”