Defenders' Experts
How Will Wolves Return to the Pacific West?
When wolves are two or three years old, they will often break away from their pack to find a mate and establish their own territory. This natural process is called dispersal.
More than 60% of the wolf population in the central Idaho and Yellowstone region has reached dispersal age, but much of the territory in this ecosystem has already been claimed by other wolf packs. This means that dispersing wolves must look elsewhere for their own territory. As the Idaho and Yellowstone wolf populations continue to grow, it is imperative that they remain protected so they can safely disperse to suitable habitat, potentially found in Oregon, Washington and northern California.
Many wolves might travel through the wilderness corridors that connect Idaho and Oregon. From there they could move either north into the wilderness of eastern Washington and connect with the population recolonizing the northern Cascades, or south into the forested mountains of northern California, where wolves have not roamed since the early 1900s.
Whatever path they follow, these dispersing wolves will help their species to recover to a level once thought impossible, and they will enrich any region that they finally choose to call home.
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