An online mapping tool allows livestock producers to find the location of gray wolves to prevent conflicts with their herds.
The mapping system unveiled this past week shows the approximate location of wolves wearing GPS collars in order to protect the farm animals from them, according to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.
“California’s rural livestock producers living near wolves have faced real challenges as the wolf population grows in California,” CDFW Director Charlton H. Bonham said in a news release. “This is one more tool in our shared toolkit to protect their herds from wolf-livestock conflict.”
In addition to aiding producers and law enforcement, the Wolf Location Automated Mapping System is the first to provide data on wolf movements to the public, the fish and wildlife agency said.
California’s GPS collars collect wolf location data about four times a day and transmit the locations each morning. The location of an individual wolf is shown as a hexagon. When clicked, it provides details about the wolf’s pack, the general area they are in, and the last transmission date.
The map provides information exclusively on 14 collared wolves as of May. That represents only a portion of the total gray wolf population.
“As wolves increase in number and range, California ranchers are in dire need of additional tools” to “deter wolf attacks,” said Kirk Wilbur, vice president of government affairs for the California Cattlemen’s Association.
California’s gray wolves are classified as both federally and state endangered. Harming them is a crime punishable by law.
Data from specific areas, such as known den sites where wolf pups are believed to be present, won’t not be available during certain times of the year, the state agency said.
The post California website keeps tabs on gray wolf population to help ranchers protect herds appeared first on Local News Matters.