CDFW Captures and Collars 12 Gray Wolves in Northern California
Press release from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW):
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) has announced the recent capture, collar and release of 12 gray wolves in northern California.
There are now more satellite-collared wolves in California than ever before, which is expected to improve understanding and management of the species in the state.
“The captures exceeded our expectations and will enhance our ability to monitor our wolf population both for conservation and recovery and also to help mitigate conflict with livestock,” said Axel Hunnicutt, CDFW’s Statewide Gray Wolf Coordinator.
Capture operations occurred from Jan. 14 through the end of that month across Siskiyou, Lassen, Plumas and Sierra counties. With the aid of contracted aircraft and a capture crew, wolves from the Whaleback, Harvey, and Beyem Seyo packs were captured. In addition to fitting each wolf with a satellite collar, biologists recorded body measurement and collected biological samples, including DNA and blood. Those samples allow CDFW to monitor wolves for diseases and to determine the relatedness of individuals and packs. The wolves were released at their capture locations.
“Having multiple collars in each of these packs, especially those on younger wolves, will not only aid current studies looking at diet and land-use preferences, but also will provide data on when and where they disperse when leaving their packs,” Hunnicutt said.
Of the 12 collared wolves, seven were female and five were male:
- Five were captured from the Beyem Seyo pack in Sierra County, including one that had been previously collared;
- Five were captured from the Harvey pack in Lassen County, including one that had been previously collared;
- Two were captured from the Whaleback pack in Siskiyou County.
CDFW Wolf Release Video, Beyem Seyo PackSatellite-collaring gray wolves is an important management and research tool to help monitor populations, understand landscape use patterns and minimize livestock conflicts. The collars do not provide real-time data. Instead, the collars collect wolf locations several times daily and periodically transmit those locations to CDFW. The battery life of the satellite collars is about two to three years. They are programmed to drop off the animal before the battery is depleted.
CDFW is currently aware of seven wolf packs in California. While nine packs were reported in the fall of 2024, wolf packs can be fluid. For example, the Beyem Seyo and Antelope packs recently merged.
More information about California’s wolves can be found on CDFW’s gray wolf web page.
In other recent gray wolf developments:
- CDFW scientists identified two new wolf packs at the end of 2024, the Diamond pack in eastern Plumas and southern Lassen counties and the Ice Cave pack near Lassen Volcanic National Park.
- Wolves in the Yowlumni pack in Tulare County are infected with sarcoptic mange, a skin disease caused by parasitic mites. Mange infections cause itchy skin lesions and hair loss. Some wolves only experience mild mange signs and can clear the infection and survive. Other wolves, however, may experience severe disease characterized by extensive hair loss, secondary bacterial infections, emaciation and eventually death. Mange has occurred in other gray wolf populations across North America. CDFW continues to monitor the pack and is consulting with experts from other states where mange occurs in wolf populations. The mange infections are believed to be limited to the Yowlumni pack as none of the recently captured and collared wolves in northern California showed signs of disease.
- The California Wolf Project (CAWP), a collaboration between CDFW and UC Berkeley’s Rausser College of Natural Resources, has just released its 2024 Annual Report. The project is investigating wolf habitat use, diet, relationships with other wildlife and wolf-livestock conflict.
- In April, CDFW anticipates issuing its first annual report on the status of gray wolves in California. The annual report will complement the Quarterly Wolf News and Updates regularly e-mailed and posted to CDFW’s gray wolf web page.
CDFW Wolf Release Video, Whaleback Pack Out of Siskiyou County
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I have mixed feeling on reintroducing wolves and grizzlies to a state with as many humans in it as California has.
on CDFW’s page they write that wolves returned to California on their own from neighboring states and that CDFW did not reintroduce wolves to the state.
Yet as expected, there is no way that I can fully believed that. It seems like there is a tendency for activism within public agencies. People have their priorities.
wildlife people, I can imagine, must likely fawn over the idea of a wild functioning predator prey structure.
hence the motive for activism.
and they’d have to tell us it was a “natural dispersal” because there is controversy over recolonizing a predator species that was intentionally eliminated in a prior time when people where more concerned about their own personal survival.
maybe they were all hunted out for ranchers and furs perhaps.
it seems now, in todays order, that other humans have become a more dangerous predator by numbers, and probably always have been.
I ideologically like the idea of a functioning wildlife system.
it seems like California will have to allow for more casual rights with firearms for defense if we are going to have wolves in humboldt , Mendo and Lake counties within 10 years.
-So, for California in quick succession: fires back, canine predators are back.
yet humans live more segregated from a natural order than ever before.
what would it mean to reintroduce humans to the wild?
even the current efforts to rebuild American Tribes through federal funding have not realized human populations that live intact in a ideal Stone Age hunter gatherer structure.
so it seems agencies are able to create space and “free right” for every other part of nature but US, a naturally based yet culturally ordered humanity.
Perhaps because domestication has allowed for such inflated Human population numbers..
it is what it is, and I’m happy to have access to both worlds
Yo Kym what happened to giant squirrel looks like his account was hacked
No one hacked his account. They just stole his name. They didn’t use other tells that show it is GS.
Have wolves in Humboldt and Mendo and Lake? There’s plenty allready that are roaming the streets.Shall not infringe
OR-7 the original progenitor of the California wolf packs came as an individual from Eastern Oregon/Idaho. He crossed into northeastern Ca a decade or more ago and was radio collared to track his movements. This wolf was amazing and was shown to have crossed rivers, Interstate 5, hung out near small mountain towns, and crossed multiple mountain ranges looking for one of his own kind. A long lonely 2 years. His movements were tracked and available to the public to watch his adventures. Then one day after being alone for so long, a small black female wolf from an Idaho pack ventured out and showed up. They met and had babies. The rest is history.
FYI, wolves have been in the PNW far longer than what is publicly known. This was not advertised because there are way to many azzholes out there who would have jumped at the chance to shoot them for fun. In the 1980s there was an established pair of wolves in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest in Western Washington. Their den sites were documented. This pack was located in the volcanic triangle of Mt. Rainier, Mt. Adams, and Mt. St. Helens. My friends and I were climbing the North face of Mt. Adams at sunrise on a summer morning in 1989. As we approached the 9,000 foot mark climbing through a rubble field of truck sized boulders, we all looked up at a mid slope bench located 100 feet above. Amazingly, we all saw a gray wolf looking down on us, Its body was silhouetted by the rising sun from the Yakima Valley east. It was watching us climb long before we saw it. As we approached closer, it disappeared over a small rise like a ghost. It was one of the most amazing wildlife encounters I have ever been been privy to witness. Mind blowing. From that moment on, I will forever support the rights of wolves to return to their natural range, regardless of what humans who want them all eradicated think. Long live OR-7, legend. Support the wolf.
I remember hearing about OR 7.
from the blue mnts?
must have run down the cascade spine or along the trajectory of 97.
why they wouldn’t already be in the western siskiyous, Klamaths or trinity’s is beyond me.
your probably right, thanks for the info. it’s just hard for me not to imagine that wildlife managers aren’t total excited and essentially activists for this.
and alot of rural people aren’t into it.
I’m mostly into it, but wood splitters I talk to aren’t.
Awesome, that sounds like a cool experience you had on the mountain, thanks for sharing.
the wolf is a primary symbol of a intact wild system, hard to deny.
My vision: “wolves in Marin county 2030”
This explains why CDFW is unable or unwilling to perform it’s historic function of protecting fish and wildlife resources — instead of spending huge amounts of money on a species they say they don’t manage — they should be protecting our streams and forests from the hoards of homeless drug addicts and thieves trashing the environment.
The presence of wolves has been shown to have a positive impact on the riparian systems in the Sierra Nevada.
It would be nice to see someone enforcing environmental regulations when it comes to homeless people trashing streams, unfortunately I think that often gets left to the cities/counties and no one is very motivated because it’s not a revenue producer.
TGIA said: “unfortunately I think that often gets left to the cities/counties and no one is very motivated because it’s not a revenue producer”
I think you’re exactly right — CDFW has jurisdiction over all waters of the State — and could go after the bums destroying and trashing the riparian zones but there’s no money in it — but if it were you or me or a landowner they’d be right on it — same thing with how they go after legal weed growers but virtually ignore the illegal ones.
Exactly, so much law enforcement in general is based around what kinds of enforcement have a chance of producing revenue (which is often a central part of department funding) rather than what accomplishes the societal purpose of the agency/laws in the first place.
mixed feelings, don’t reinstate the grizzly? it’s the state animal for god’s sake.
?
The subspecies of grizzly that used to exist in California is long extinct
How does California impede you from having a firearm for defense? I seem to have what I need.
You have chronic wolf depredation all over Idaho .
really?
In Idaho a rancher that has livestock can obtain a permit to shoot a wolf that is killing and eating his stock. The Rangers will also kill if need be. Idaho is overrun with wolves because they do not have predators, other than bears that will kill them. I think it stay this way for many more years.
You can also legally hunt them in Idaho
Ted, can you legally hunt wolves in Idaho?
Yes you can
Overrun? no.
Get goin droolface
Are wolves more dangerous than packs of feral dogs?
Probably not, good point
Very much so.
Very much not.
Dogs kill around 40 people per year in the US.
Wolves are only estimated to have killed around 100 people in the entirety of North America since 1750. The last fatality in the United States (Alaska) was in 2010.
Dogs also kill around 100% more cattle and 1,294% more sheep than wolves. https://lockwoodarc.org/wolves#:~:text=According%20to%20USDA%20data%2C%20dogs,problems%2C%20weather%2C%20and%20theft.
Probably not, but we would not allow a pack of feral dogs into our society.
Soon they will eat somone
Except that almost never happens.
Non existent wolves don’t certainly. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wolf_attacks
Never say never
That’s why I didn’t say never.
I said almost never.
The last fatal wolf attack in the United States was 15 years ago in Alaska.
The last fatality caused by a wild wolf in the continental United states was in 1893.
Almost never is still too often.
No it’s not
Cmon man. That is simply not fact based or relevant. It is an excuse to go shoot them along with anything else that isn’t a cow or sheep on their property. It is ridiculous. The state has already stated they will pay for livestock depredated by proven wolf kills. The thing is though, it is up to the ranchers to protect their livestock by using guardian dogs, donkeys, llamas, fences, or herders who live with the flock. Gone are the days the rancher can just let his cows or sheep loose on blm or private land and walk away, expecting them to be around when they check in on them occasionally. Being a cheapo in terms of providing herd security is not an excuse either. It’s called being lazy. I am tired of the cowboys spewing their western frontier garbage and it stems from the days Buffalo were shot and wiped out from passing trains. What a despicable waste of living beings. Their is no frontier in the lower 48, so they can keep dreaming. No excuses. Respect the wolf.
You must live in downtown San Francisco! You have NO clue as to what you’re talking about in any part of your post! Yes, the state said that they would pay for the livestock being killed, but it’s on the taxpayers back! That makes a lot of sense…
I mean, most of these ranchers are already grazing on public land on the taxpayers back. Why is that ok but not supporting them if wolf predation happens (as long as they make an effort to protect the herd)?
Negative, ranchers cattle grazing on public land is not paid for by tax dollars. It costs you nothing. Ranchers have to get permits. Additionally, cattle grazing on public land actually keeps the fuel for wildfires down. Educate yourself.
Ranchers generally pay well below market rents for their use of public lands. And their practices are almost universally an ecological net negative. So they are costing all of us money by degrading our public lands for their personal gain.
The reintroduction of apex predators like wolves is typically a boon to western wild lands because it mitigates over grazing and keeps large herbivores like bison, elk, and cattle from camping on creeksides and destroying the riparian ecosystem.
So I think a program that introduces wolves while allowing for public compensation for predation as long as the rancher did their part to protect their herd is a good use of public funds. We should increase the cost of leasing public grazing land as well though.
I’ve seen the damage cattle can do on BLM land. It’s absolutely costing me
Bullshit.
“Rabies played a significant role in most of the attacks. Researchers unearthed 489 victims of wolf attacks across the world from 2002 until 2020. Of those, 380 (78%) were rabid attacks, 67 were considered predatory attacks and 42 were provoked/defensive attacks.”
https://wolf.org/wolf-info/factsvsfiction/are-wolves-dangerous-to-humans/
So just under 28 incidents per year globally?
Certainly sounds like a vanishingly minor issue.
No animals should ever be killed for being an animal. They should be relocated……period. Why do humans think they are so superior then other animals?? Everything must be monitored and tagged. It is disgusting what we have become.
Thank you for saying it.
This was an interesting read. I was able to subscribe to CDFW Wolf updates. Looks like most of the wolf sightings are east of HWY I-5.
Be careful dealing with the collared ones.
Nobody I know wants these sport hunting predators here. When I lived in Idaho, they said there were “only about 800 wolves in the state” yet they issued 1500 wolf tags the first year. They decimated the elk herds up there. It’ll be the same thing here, guaranteed, the only difference- [edit] will never allow them to be hunted. They’re not even native to this area. Makes ZERO sense.
Most people I know do want them here.
Either way, decisions related to nature are best made weighing science over public opinion.
“Science” ? like the vaccine you got because the government told you to follow the science???
This is such an embarrassingly stupid thing to say out loud.
Just read an article that stated what a great thing wolves have been for Yellowstone area – keeping the elk population in check, with many benefits to the trees, erosion to streams, rivers etc, and a host of other new animals showing up!
The benefits don’t stop there:
“In Wisconsin counties where wolf populations returned, the number of (vehicle vs deer) collisions dropped in each area by 24 percent on average”
“The average drop of 38 deer-vehicle collisions per year in counties with wolves translates to an estimated $10.9 million in savings each year across the state, the team found. For comparison, the state paid about $3 million over the last 35 years to compensate for wolf damages.” https://www.sciencenews.org/article/gray-wolves-scare-deer-roads-reduce-car-collisions#:~:text
seems to me like free range grazing on public lands, logging leases on public lands, etc do a whole lot more damage to populations such as elk than wolves. with that, you’re more than likely not native to the area, so take that argument somewhere else
I am in fact native to the area. You people haven’t got a clue about the havoc you unleashing. Pure ignorance.
Give it up. Stop the Little Red Riding Hood scare. Protect your livestock on your own dime. The cowboy frontier is dead in the lower 48. Respect the wolf.
This makes my heart happy.
Well said.
Generally speaking,
If you can fuck with it, fuck with it
Its good for the economy
Bag it, tag it, pimp it, pawn it, copy it, follow it, produce it, reproduce it, stamp it, brand it, study it, manage it, distribute it, eat it, then shit it out, like chronic explosive diarrhea, rinse it and repeat it, twice daily, ad nauseam
Cause there ain’t no financial future in accepting and appreciating it as it is
I lived around Mexican Grey wolves for a year or two. They usually kept to themselves. Wasn’t raising cattle or sheep though.
Supposedly there is a herd of elk, running around the trinity humbold border on 36. Lived here most of my life and havnt seen one yet.