PORTLAND – Videotape and repeated sightings indicate a young black wolf is roaming a 120-square-mile area of Wallowa County in northeast Oregon, biologists said.

“It sure appears at this point it’s a wild wolf,” said Russ Morgan, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife wolf coordinator based in La Grande.

The wolf’s presence would confirm what biologists have long said – that it was only a matter of time before a booming wolf population in Idaho overflows into Oregon. Sightings of what may be another wolf in the Wallowa Mountains have not been confirmed.

Other wolves have entered Oregon. But officials captured one and moved it back to Idaho, while the others were killed – one on a highway and the other illegally shot – before their presence became known. This time, the wolf has been hovering in Wallowa County for more than a month, and there are no plans to remove it. Biologists say it could stay in the area on its own or suddenly take off for new terrain.

“It appears the animal is working some kind of a home range,” Morgan said.

An Oregon management plan for wolves sets a goal of four breeding pairs each in Eastern Oregon and Western Oregon, and the plan calls for state biologists to monitor the animals. Wolves in Oregon are protected by federal and state endangered species acts. It is illegal to shoot wolves in Oregon, even if they attack livestock.