The repopulation of wolves in California was recognized in late December 2011, when

OR-7 OR-7, also known as Journey, was a male gray wolf that was electronically tracked as he migrated from the Wallowa Mountains in the northeastern corner of the U.S. state of Oregon to the southern Cascade Range. After the wolf dispersed from his ...

, a male

gray wolf The wolf (''Canis lupus''; : wolves), also known as the gray wolf or grey wolf, is a large canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been recognized, and gray wolves, as popularly ...

from

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

, became the first confirmed wild wolf in

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

since 1924, when wolves were considered

extirpated Local extinction, also known as extirpation, refers to a species (or other taxon) of plant or animal that ceases to exist in a chosen geographic area of study, though it still exists elsewhere. Local extinctions are contrasted with global extinct ...

from the state. The first resident

wolf pack A pack is a social group of conspecific canines. Packs aren't formed by all canines, especially small sized canines like the Red fox. The number of members in a pack and their social behavior varies from species to species. Social structure is v ...

was confirmed in 2015, after two adults migrated from Oregon and had five pups. Additional wolves have been tracked during their natural expansion into state, as the

Cascade Range The Cascade Range or Cascades is a major mountain range of western North America, extending from southern British Columbia through Washington and Oregon to Northern California. It includes both non-volcanic mountains, such as the North Cascades, ...

, which wolves have repopulated in Oregon, extends south into northern California. In 2021, the state had at least two wolf packs with pups for the first time in over a hundred years. It is likely that other uncollared wolves are dispersing through portions of their historic habitat in California.

Precursors in Oregon

Wolves in the United States were protected under the federal

Endangered Species Act The Endangered Species Act of 1973 (ESA or "The Act"; 16 U.S.C. § 1531 et seq.) is the primary law in the United States for protecting imperiled species. Designed to protect critically imperiled species from extinction as a "consequence of ec ...

in 1978 as they were in danger of going extinct and needed protection to aid their recovery. Wolves were reintroduced to

Idaho Idaho ( ) is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. To the north, it shares a small portion of the Canada–United States border with the province of British Columbia. It borders the states of Montana and Wyom ...

in the 1990s and expanded their range into the northern

Rocky Mountains The Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range and the largest mountain system in North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch in straight-line distance from the northernmost part of western Canada, to New Mexico in ...

and

Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest (sometimes Cascadia, or simply abbreviated as PNW) is a geographic region in western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Though ...

. Wolves crossed the

Snake River The Snake River is a major river of the greater Pacific Northwest region in the United States. At long, it is the largest tributary of the Columbia River, in turn, the largest North American river that empties into the Pacific Ocean. The Snake ...

from Idaho to Oregon by swimming or finding a bridge. The

Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) is a government agency of the U.S. state of Oregon responsible for programs protecting Oregon fish and wildlife resources and their habitats. The agency operates hatcheries, issues hunting and ...

started studying their behavior in the wild by live-trapping the growing wolf population in Oregon and fitting them with GPS tracking collars that provide daily satellite position reports. State biologists gave a sequential designation to each wolf with a collar. The vast majority remain clustered in their historic range in the northeast corner of the state, where the forests between the high mountains and populated areas are full of elk and deer. In 2010, state biologists noticed wolves in the Cascade Range but were unable to determine if they were single dispersing animals wandering through or were starting to occupy the area. Individual wolves will roam, searching for a mate and new territory. As the

California Department of Fish and Wildlife The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW), formerly known as the California Department of Fish and Game (CDFG), is a state agency under the California Natural Resources Agency. The Department of Fish and Wildlife manages and protect ...

(CDFW) monitored the expansion of wolves in Oregon, they began in 2011 to prepare for the possibility of wolves recolonizing the state. While the state did not have a program to reintroduce wolves, the assumption was that the natural expansion would eventually have wolves crossing the Oregon/California border.

Initial entry and reactions

was the first confirmed wild

wolf The wolf (''Canis lupus''; : wolves), also known as the gray wolf or grey wolf, is a large canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been recognized, and gray wolves, as popularly u ...

in California since 1924. In late December 2011, the data sent by his GPS tracking collar showed he had crossed the Oregon/California border. Nicknamed Journey, he was a male gray wolf that migrated from the

Wallowa Mountains The Wallowa Mountains () are a mountain range located in the Columbia Plateau of northeastern Oregon in the United States. The range runs approximately northwest to southeast in southwestern Wallowa County and eastern Union County between the ...

in northeastern corner of Oregon. After leaving his pack, he wandered generally southwest for more than through Oregon, and entered northern California. He spent much of 2012 exploring northeastern California in a circuitous path across seven different counties that eventually covered thousands of miles. In March 2013, he returned to Oregon and was found in 2014 raising a litter of pups in

Rogue River–Siskiyou National Forest The Rogue River–Siskiyou National Forest is a United States National Forest in the U.S. states of Oregon and California. The formerly separate Rogue River and Siskiyou National Forests were administratively combined in 2004. Now, the Rogue Ri ...

. Being so near to the California border, he crossed back and forth repeatedly. He is presumed to have died at about 11 years old, an above-average lifespan for a wild wolf. Under the state's

, the California Fish and Game Commission granted the gray wolf protection in 2014. The Department (CDFW) had recommended against the inclusion as a wolf management plan being developed would protect the animals. The management plan would attempt to balance the needs of wildlife with the needs of people using the best available science. The plan could allow flexibility for ranchers concerned about attacks on livestock and deal with concerns that wolves might decimate elk herds. In 2016, the department completed the plan and published the ''Conservation Plan for Gray Wolves in California''. The management plan provides policy for wildlife managers as they handle potential conflicts between the wolves, humans, and livestock. To balance ample prey for wolves with opportunities for hunters, the plan included management of deer, elk, and other game animals. The plan also covers the impact that wolves as predators may have on other species of concern. A judge found in 2019 that wolves wandering in naturally from neighboring states should be protected by California's laws after a lawsuit was brought by the

Pacific Legal Foundation Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF) is a libertarian public interest law firm in the United States.Zumbrun, Ronald A. (2004). "Life, Liberty, and Property Rights," in ''Bringing Justice to the People: The Story of the Freedom-Based Public Interest La ...

, the California Farm Bureau Federation and the California Cattlemen's Association challenging the listing. By 2019, 15 wolves in three different groups had become established in the Cascade Range of Oregon. Northern California is easily accessible as the Cascades extend southerly into the state. Wolves leave a scent trail that they can use to

communicate Communication (from la, communicare, meaning "to share" or "to be in relation with") is usually defined as the transmission of information. The term may also refer to the message communicated through such transmissions or the field of inquir ...

and retrace their wanderings. Wildlife experts explain that it is possible for other wolves to follow said urine scent and these initial wolf sojourns can open up new territory. In 2019, California Fish and Game Commission opposed the federal proposal to delist wolves from the

. They argued that federal protection was still needed to make a full recovery since the future wolf population in California will depend on expanding from other states. In November 2021, a federal judge held a hearing on a particular issue, Were wolves properly classified under the endangered act prior to losing their protected status last year?

First resident packs

The Shasta Pack was the first resident pack in more than a century, due to the presence of five pups in 2015. Living in

Siskiyou County Siskiyou County (, ) is a county in the northernmost part of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 44,076. Its county seat is Yreka and its highest point is Mount Shasta. It falls within the Cascadia bioregion ...

, just south of the Oregon–California border, the pack's breeding pair came from the same pack as OR-7, making them his

sibling A sibling is a relative that shares at least one parent with the subject. A male sibling is a brother and a female sibling is a sister. A person with no siblings is an only child. While some circumstances can cause siblings to be raised separat ...

s. Officials with CDFW said they believe the two adult wolves migrated into the state from southern Oregon when the department released a photo taken by a trail camera in 2015. One of the grown-up pups was found in northwestern Nevada in 2016, the first wolf verified in Nevada in nearly 100 years. They were involved in what was possibly the first modern

predation Predation is a biological interaction where one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation (which usually do not kill the ...

in California when they may have killed a calf they ate in November 2015. Wolves are typically scavengers so it is common for a cow to die of disease and then the wolves come in. Ranchers would like the right to protect their livestock but penalties will be imposed for the killing, shooting, injuring, or taking of wolves in California. The pack disappeared under unexplained circumstances. The Lassen Pack, living in

Lassen National Forest Lassen National Forest is a United States national forest of 1,700 square miles (4,300 km2) in northeastern California. It is named after pioneer Peter Lassen, who mined, ranched and promoted the area to emigrant parties in the 1850s. Wildli ...

were confirmed in the fall of 2016. The first breeding male of the Lassen Pack was CA-08M, son of

. In June 2017, CDFW biologists fitted the pack's breeding female, known as LAS01F, with a tracking collar. She is not related to known Oregon wolves, and genetic analysis indicates that she likely dispersed from some other part of the northern Rocky Mountain wolf population. Born in 2014, possibly in Wyoming where she has half-siblings, she traveled or more through the

Great Basin Desert The Great Basin Desert is part of the Great Basin between the Sierra Nevada and the Wasatch Range. The desert is a geographical region that largely overlaps the Great Basin shrub steppe defined by the World Wildlife Fund, and the Central Basin a ...

in Utah and Nevada, or a much longer journey through Idaho and Oregon. The CDFW and the

U.S. Forest Service The United States Forest Service (USFS) is an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture that administers the nation's 154 national forests and 20 national grasslands. The Forest Service manages of land. Major divisions of the agency in ...

traced the four pups from this second pack in 2017 to OR-7. The pair went on to have five pups in 2018, and four pups in 2019. CA-08M had not been detected with the pack since spring 2019. A black-colored adult male is the new breeding male, LAS16M, who began traveling with the pack as early as June 2019. The pack had two litters of four pups each in 2020 with LAS09F, a two-year-old female, also giving birth. LAS09F had six pups in 2021 but LAS01F had not been detected since fall 2020. Most of the Lassen Pack's activity has been tracked across the western parts of

Lassen County Lassen County () is a county in the northeastern portion of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 32,730. The county seat and only incorporated city is Susanville. Lassen County comprises the Susanville, Calif ...

, and the northernmost part of

Plumas County Plumas County () is a county in the Sierra Nevada of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 19,790. The county seat is Quincy, and the only incorporated city is Portola. The largest community in the county is ...

. LAS13M (collared), a young male wolf from the pack, journeyed to

Lake County, Oregon Lake County is one of the 36 counties in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2020 census, the population was 8,160. Its county seat is Lakeview. The county is named after the many lakes found within its boundaries, including Lake Abert, Summe ...

, in early October 2020. The Lassen Pack survived the

Dixie Fire The Dixie Fire was an enormous wildfire in Butte, Plumas, Lassen, Shasta, and Tehama Counties, California. It was named after Dixie Road, near where the fire started in Butte County. The fire began in the Feather River Canyon near Cresta Dam ...

when it burn through their home range in August 2021. OR-85, a two-year-old male wolf, left the Mt. Emily Pack in Oregon and traveled to Siskiyou County in November 2020. In January 2021, another wolf (which biologists believed to be a female) joined OR-85 in the northernmost part of California. Named the Whaleback Pack, the female is related to Oregon's Rogue Pack. In September 2021, CDFW wolf specialist Kent Laudon confirmed the Whaleback Pack had 7 pups. With both the Whaleback and Lassen packs having pups in 2021, the state had at least two wolf packs with pups for the first time in over a hundred years..

Further exploration and challenges

OR-93 was the 16th documented gray wolf in the recent history of the state. The two-year-old male wolf was fitted with a purple radio collar in June 2020 by tribal biologists on the

Warm Springs Indian Reservation The Warm Springs Indian Reservation consists of in north-central Oregon, in the United States, and is governed by the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs. Tribes Three tribes form the confederation: the Wasco, Tenino (Warm Springs) and Pa ...

in the northern Cascade Mountains in Oregon. After leaving his White River pack, he reached

Mono County Mono County ( ) is a county located in the east central portion of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 13,195, making it the fourth-least populous county in California. The county seat is Bridgeport. The coun ...

, east of

Yosemite National Park Yosemite National Park ( ) is an American national park in California, surrounded on the southeast by Sierra National Forest and on the northwest by Stanislaus National Forest. The park is managed by the National Park Service and covers an ar ...

in the central

Sierra Nevada The Sierra Nevada () is a mountain range in the Western United States, between the Central Valley of California and the Great Basin. The vast majority of the range lies in the state of California, although the Carson Range spur lies primarily ...

in February 2021, which is the farthest south a wolf has been tracked in California in more than a century. Heading west, he crossed the agricultural area of the Central Valley near

Fresno Fresno () is a major city in the San Joaquin Valley of California, United States. It is the county seat of Fresno County and the largest city in the greater Central Valley region. It covers about and had a population of 542,107 in 2020, maki ...

. After being tracked through 16 California counties, the signal was lost in

San Luis Obispo County San Luis Obispo County (), officially the County of San Luis Obispo, is a county on the Central Coast of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 282,424. The county seat is San Luis Obispo. Junípero Serra founded the Mission ...

. The last wolf in the Central Coast area was sighted in 1826, which is nearly from his birthplace, south of

Mount Hood Mount Hood is a potentially active stratovolcano in the Cascade Volcanic Arc. It was formed by a subduction zone on the Pacific coast and rests in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located about east-southeast of Portlan ...

in western Oregon. While avoiding populated areas, the wolf had crossed three major north–south highways;

California Route 99 State Route 99 (SR 99), commonly known as Highway 99 or, simply, as 99 (without any further designation), is a north–south state highway in the U.S. state of California, stretching almost the entire length of the Central Valley. Fr ...

Interstate 5 Interstate 5 (I-5) is the main north–south Interstate Highway on the West Coast of the United States, running largely parallel to the Pacific coast of the contiguous U.S. from Mexico to Canada. It travels through the states of Califor ...

, and

Highway 101 Highway 101 was an American country music band founded in 1986 in Los Angeles, California. The initial lineup consisted of Paulette Carlson (lead vocals), Jack Daniels (guitar), Curtis Stone (bass guitar, vocals), and Scott "Cactus" Moser (drums) ...

along the way. OR-93 may have been spotted on May 15 in southwestern

Kern County Kern County is a county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 909,235. Its county seat is Bakersfield. Kern County comprises the Bakersfield, California, Metropolitan statistical area. The county sp ...

in a videotape of a wolf at a water trough on private property. September wolf sightings in rural northern

Ventura County Ventura County () is a county in the southern part of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 843,843. The largest city is Oxnard, and the county seat is the city of Ventura. Ventura County comprises the Oxnar ...

were confirmed by CDFW through the identification of recent wolf tracks. Due to the purple collar, the animal is assumed to be OR-93. This is the farthest south in California that a gray wolf has been documented since one was captured in

San Bernardino County San Bernardino County (), officially the County of San Bernardino, is a county located in the southern portion of the U.S. state of California, and is located within the Inland Empire area. As of the 2020 U.S. Census, the population was 2,181, ...

in 1922. He was found dead in November, apparently killed by a vehicle on a highway. A truck driver notified authorities after he noticed a dead wolf along a dirt trail in Kern County off Interstate 5 near the town of

Lebec Lebec is an unincorporated area, unincorporated community and census-designated place in southwestern Kern County, California. As of the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census, the population was 1,468. Geography Lebec is located in Castac Valley ...

. In early May 2021, OR-103, a young male who was outfitted with a GPS collar in

Deschutes County, Oregon Deschutes County is one of the 36 counties in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2020 census, the population was 198,253. The county seat is Bend. The county was created in 1916 out of part of Crook County and was named for the Deschutes ...

, crossed the border into Siskiyou County. It is likely several other undetected wolves are dispersing through portions of their historic habitat in the state. Also in May, a confirmed wolf depredation occurred in Eastern Plumas County. Evidence of 3 wolves were seen at the carcass and the wolves were named the Beckwourth Pack. Preliminary DNA analysis indicates one of the wolves in the Beckwourth Pack is LAS12F, a female from the Lassen Packs 2019 litter. Origins of the other 2 wolves are unknown but field efforts are ongoing.

References

Citations

Bibliography

External links

Gray Wolf
California Department of Fish and Wildlife, Conservation:Mammals
Gray wolf (Canis lupus)
ECOS - U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service * {{DEFAULTSORT:Repopulation of wolves in California, Wolves

Wolves The wolf (''Canis lupus''; plural, : wolves), also known as the gray wolf or grey wolf, is a large Canis, canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of Canis lupus, subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been reco ...