State wildlife officials will launch a major effort to track Deer, Elk and Gray Wolves in Northern California. Throughout January the California Department of Fish and Wildlife will be using helicopters to capture the wild animals in several counties, including Lassen, Modoc, Siskiyou, Shasta and Tehama. After they’re caught they’ll be fitted with GPS tracking collars and released back into the wild. Mule Deer and Rocky Mountain Elk will be released where they’re captured, while Wolves will be released in the nearest suitable public land habitat. The collars will transmit location data to scientists daily for up to three years. Wolf data will be automatically fed into the publicly-accessible online wolf tracker mapping tool so ranchers can try to avoid interaction with their stock.
-Steve Gibson