Wolves in Oregon and the Journey of 'Oregon-7'

The wolf (which happens to be my totem and clan, and an animal I have a great affinity for, having come to me in dreams many times. Usually Wolf comes to me as very large, and snow white...) has made a "come back" into Oregon, and this is either beautiful news for some, and very bad news for others. Ranchers in particular see the return of the wolf as bad news.

One wolf has become a symbol; a symbolic animal hero, almost mystical in its journey. The wolf, so far unnamed save for the clinical label of "Oregon-7" wears a GPS collar. His journey is tracked. Oregon-7 is, hopefully and probably, looking for a mate:
if this wolf can locate a mate, it could help wolf recovery. All on his own, Oregon-7 is a biological dead end.

"We’re out here trying to find out which way it’s going to go," Stephenson says.
In September, the 2½ year old male left the Wallowa mountains in search of a new territory and company, a process called dispersal. The GPS collar recorded the wolf’s location every three hours. Oregon-7 traveled more than 700 miles.

This article: Field Notes: In Oregon’s Cascades, A Lone Wolf details Oregon-7's latest movements, as well as giving background and context to why "Oregon-7's" journey is important.

There was a time in Oregon when bounties were paid for wolf kills. Now, in Oregon, it is illegal to kill wolves, which are listed as an endangered species. This law is being contested however; ranchers, cattlemen, etc. are working very hard to change that law. This story from October, 2010 gives an account of an illegal wolf kill (a wolf that had a GPS collar and was being tracked by wildlife authorities) in Northeastern Oregon. About the wolf that was killed in 2010:

“It’s infuriating when any animal is senselessly and illegally killed, but the facts in this case are especially egregious,” says Wally Sykes of Northeast Oregon Ecosystems of Joseph, Oregon. “The biologists had just fitted this endangered wolf with a hard-to-miss collar and sent out photos printed in newspapers and websites across the state. Whoever shot this wolf knew what they were doing and just didn’t care that it was illegal.”

The irony is that the Wenaha wolf pack hasn’t been a problem for Northeast Oregon ranchers. The pack keeps to itself in the high country and has never attacked livestock. The Imnaha pack, on the other hand, killed at least six or seven calves this year in Wallowa County.

Black macaque takes self-portrait: Monkey borrows photographer's camera | Mail Online

Great story, with pics:
Black macaque takes self-portrait: Monkey borrows photographer's camera | Mail Online

Texas Cryptid Hunter: Are Deer Omnivorous?

An interesting report from Mike at Texas Cryptid Hunter on meat eating deer. With video and photos.

Texas Cryptid Hunter: Are Deer Omnivorous?

Black Deer in Texas

thanks to Lesley at The Debris Field for this item.

I would never know about this if it weren't for Forteans, like Lesley, who posted this link on her The Debris Field blog, for it appeared on the Buck Manager Deer Hunting and Management site, a site I would never visit. But it's interesting news, about black deer (melanistic deer) being seen in Texas. Black deer aren't unheard of, but according to the site are rare. The number of these black deer are increasing however, and why is a mystery. I can't help but see a connection between the increase in black deer and the "blue dogs" also called "chupacabras" in Texas (as well as other parts of the U.S.) There has to be, one would think, an environmental cause for these animals. A signal, that something is wrong, a signal us humans need to pay attention to.

It turns out Texas has more black deer in the area than other places:

Dr. John Baccus, director of the wildlife ecology program at Texas State University, has been studying melanistic deer for over 13 years now. And as it turns out, Texas is a good place to study the dark colored deer. That’s because there just happens to be more black deer in eight Texas counties than in the rest of the world combined!

Very interesting...

Odd Beams and Objects Caught on Trial Cams

Lon Strickler at Phantoms and Monsters has a good post on some weirdness caught by trail cams. Red glowing lights, strange objects, beams of light . . . and the unusual reaction of deer to those things. For Lon's post and images visit Phantoms and Monsters: Trial Cam Strangeness

The above reminded me of the strange beam of light that appeared to stop just above the ground caught on camera by Margie Alvarez in Stephenville, Texas, during the Stephenville UFO flap. (Other events came to mind, like the Skinwalker ranch, etc.)


In these cases; the ones Lon refers to, Stephenville, there is a lot of property available for "them" whoever "they" may be, to do their thing. Private property, rural, hard to get to, at night -- all good conditions for conducting covert activities.

I'm always interested in the reaction of animals to the anomalous; the animals responses are excellent clues -- and data -- in working towards figuring out what is going on.