Courtesy/Defenders of Wildlife

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New images of a pair of wolves in the Mount Hood National Forest, show that the rare and elusive canids have likely made the mountain their home, advocates said Friday.

The pictures, captured by trail cameras set up by volunteers over the summer, show two animals, known as the White River wolves, rummaging about near a tree, one clearly visible and the other partially hidden in the foliage.

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Courtesy/Defenders of Wildlife

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Though the images were taken in July, the trail cameras weren't retrieved until October, said Sristi Kamal, a representative of Defenders of Wildlife, one of the organizations that helped put out the cameras.

"It was pretty exciting for us," she said of the moment they saw the wolf pics. "It's obvious evidence that they are still around."

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Courtesy/Defenders of Wildlife

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Though there have been rumors of wolves wandering the Cascades since at least 2013, the first definitive evidence came in January when the U.S. Forest Service caught the pair on camera.

"We've expected them to colonize this area," Stephenson

at the time. "There are undoubtedly wolves out there we don't know about."

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Courtesy/Wildlife Department BNR-Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs

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In August, two wolf pups were observed on the southern flanks of Mount Hood, marking the first time a breeding pair of Wolves had been seen in the northern Cascades since the endangered canids first returned to the state.

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Courtesy/Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife via AP

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Wolves were eradicated by hunters and trappers in Oregon by the 1940s, but began repopulating the state in 2009 when animals, reintroduced in Idaho and Wyoming, dispersed across state lines. Since then, the canids have established a firm foothold in the northeast corner of the state, mostly in Wallowa and Baker Counties, as well as in Jackson, Klamath and Lake counties.

As of the last count, in 2017, Oregon was home to a at least 124 wolves.

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Courtesy/ODFW

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The most recent pictures are good news for conservationists, Kamal said, because it shows that wolves are dispersing throughout the state.

"We want wolves to disperse so they aren't just concentrated in the northeast," she said. Although it's unclear exactly where these animals came from, the fact that they're in Cascades shows that there is habitat connectivity between different regions where wolves dwell.

That they are still here, nearly a year after they were first detected, shows that the northern Cascades is capable of hosting the animals in the long term.

There was no evidence of the pups in the most recent pictures, Kamal said, but if they survive and stick with their parents, Western Oregon could have its first named pack in more than half a century.

For now, Kamal and other conservationists are hoping to work with locals to educate them about their new canine neighbors.

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Courtesy/Defenders of Wildlife

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"We want to work with ranchers and landowners to try to prevent some of the conflicts we've seen in other areas," she said.

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-- Kale Williams

kwilliams@oregonian.com

503-294-4048