CDFW to Conduct Helicopter Capture and Collaring Efforts for Deer, Elk in Humboldt and Beyond
Helicopter capture of Wildlife by CDFW
Press release from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife:
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) is initiating efforts in northern California to capture deer, elk and wolves by helicopter and outfit the animals with GPS collars.
Helicopter captures for deer and elk will be conducted in portions of Alameda, Colusa, Humboldt, Lake, Lassen, Modoc, Plumas, Santa Clara, Sierra, Siskiyou and Tehama counties throughout the month of January 2026.
Capturing and collaring mule deer, tule, and Rocky Mountain elk improves CDFW’s understanding of species distribution, habitat use, abundance, migration patterns, recruitment rates and survival.
Capture teams will be targeting wolves in Siskiyou, Lassen and Tehama counties and potentially other uncollared packs or wolf groups in Modoc, Shasta and Plumas counties. Any captured wolves will be returned to the nearest suitable public land habitat after processing.
Deployed collars will transmit data to CDFW scientists daily for up to three years and provide detailed information about animal movements, habitat preferences and locations. For collared wolves specifically, CDFW will share animal location information with cattle and sheep producers with the goal of reducing negative interactions with the understanding GPS tracking collars do not transmit data in real-time. Wolf movement and location data will automatically feed into CDFW’s online Wolf Tracker mapping tool.
Wildlife capture operations will take place on lands managed by CDFW, the USDA Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management as well as on private properties with permission from landowners. CDFW is grateful to the USDA Forest Service, BLM, timberland owners and other private parties for providing access to their lands for these wildlife capture efforts.
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So they will capture a wolf collar it and then drop it off somewhere? Take it back to where you found it!
Seems to me this whole collaring thing just stresses the animals out, then they have to put up with this collar for years.
CDFW doesn’t want to take it back where they captured it, they want to start up a new pack somewhere else. All part of the big plan that the public has zero input on.
Two swings and misses in two sentences.
This program has nothing to do with starting new packs.
And input gathered from the public shows strong support for reintroducing wolves.
A 2019 Colorado survey found, “85% of Front Range residents, 80% of Western Slope residents, and 79% of Eastern Plains residents would vote in favor of wolf reintroduction” https://extension.colostate.edu/resource/public-perspectives-on-wolves-and-wolf-reintroduction/
Rather obvious AI image, and with no human “minding the shop”.
The vegetation and helicopter are sharply defined, but whatever is in those bags is indeterminate. There’s no way I can think of to get three bags of ?deer? suspended from one cable, much less land them again. The helicopter is very close to the ground, yet there is no dust or vegetation being blown around. The helicopter and bags don’t make any shadows on the ground.
It’s such a cool photo that it is hard to believe it is real. I wondered too. But here’s video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0OSazeCOxo
I highly recommend watching it.
A few thoughts after watching the video “Technocratic population control…it’s all good!”
I wonder when they will tag humans for the same data and policies, oh wait, you are probably reading this on it…
Deer be like “A machine came out of the sky and sucked me up and then they probed my anus!”
Jesus Christ! Trauma central with the addition of a locked collar, for years!
These are healthy animals, there is no call for this type of crap.
What the hell is wrong with us?
I say, collar the ones collaring.
Funny humans think we know what’s best for wild animals while we destroy and plunder the earth.
We have links to studies…………… 😅😂😭
Apparently, the helicopter picked up three animals all from different locations. I do see a little dust behind the chopper as it travels forward. They will receive a lot of valuable information from the collars over the three-year period. It is important to study their habits and how far they travel. The collars are a little loose and can breakaway if the animal gets snagged by a tree limb or other object. I am all for this program which will lead to a large and health herd of animals.
Thanks for your nasty reply. You have no idea about what they are doing, so just run me into the ground. I have worked with the group, and I do have a basic understanding.
IMHO:
Bring Back The Grizzly Bear.
Make Going In The Woods a Terror Event !
—
A terrifying grizzly bear attack on a school field trip in remote British Columbia has left 11 people injured — two of them critically — and set off a massive search for the sow and her two cubs.
The bear burst out of the forest near the Nuxalk Nation reserve community of 4 Mile last week, charging at a group of fourth- and fifth-grade schoolchildren and teachers who had stopped for lunch along a walking trail.
In the chaos that followed, three teachers tried desperately to protect the students: One emptied two cans of bear spray with little effect, another leapt onto the animal and punched it, and a third beat the grizzly back with her crutches until it retreated.
(SFGate… and lots of other web sites.)
It always amazes me how much fear some people harbor and the lengths to which they will go to rationalize that fear.
Bring back the grizzly bear, and continue going out into the woods to enjoy nature.
Life is not really as scary as some fearmongers make it out to be.
Spoken like a true Cement person. Ask Smitty up at RNP what he thinks of grizzlies. When you see his face, you will understand. I think you are mistaking the relatively skittish and non aggressive nature of black bears with grizzly bears. What would you do if you encountered a Grizzly on a trail while hiking alone? Pro tip, you probably won’t see it before it’s on your back tearing you down. Hope you have a rifle…….don’t run……attempt to climb a tree while forgetting that its second nature to bears……call the police on your cell phone while attempting to lift yourself by one arm up the tree while the grizzly grabs you leg and pulls you out? Not many good options is there? Perhaps the best bet is to bend over and kiss yer azz goodbye knowing at least the bear will not have starved, @nd your body will be excreted out it’s behind after digestion to become one with the Earth again. Call it Progressive Assisted Suicide by Grizzly. I bet there would be a few crazies loony enough to accept the challenge. On second thought, let’s do a pilot program in the Arkata Community Forest to see what happens. We shall call it the Progressive Population Reduction by Shear Fate Initiative. Please sign on the dotted line…..
“Authorities are warning hikers to steer clear of streams and rivers where salmon are running and to take precautions after bears mauled hikers on two different occasions within a week in Anchorage.
Both unidentified hikers survived the attacks in separate parts of the municipality of Anchorage, a sprawling urban-wildlife interface that spreads across 1,961 square miles (5,079 square kilometers), an area slightly larger than the state of Rhode Island.”
https://apnews.com/article/alaska-bear-maulings-salmon-runs-c7bfcc50aeebebb214348994770d2f23
“Wapiti Elementary School west of Cody is like many other rural Wyoming schools — except its surrounded by a bear-resistant fence. Teachers running “grizzly drills” with kids is part of the routine.”
https://cowboystatedaily.com/2024/10/01/bear-proof-fence-grizzly-drills-just-routine-at-wyomings-wapiti-school/
You know what people who actually live in proximity of wolves and Grizzlies fear? The oblivious people who dismiss them so casually. Although frequently those same people will flood local politicians with angry demands for government action if another human simply expresses a negative opinion about drag queens reading to children books in public libraries. Or objects to illegal immigrants being given protection. Now there is fear-mongering on steroids.
“I’ve watched bears try to eat calves out of cows as they were being born. You know, the way the rules are right now, I really can’t do anything about it besides try to haze that bear.”
https://www.npr.org/2025/12/26/nx-s1-5653361/ranchers-test-virtual-fence-technologys-ability-to-keep-cows-safe-from-grizzly-bears
Authorities frequently have to remind people who go out in nature that they are out in nature and should take appropriate precautions– including for elk, deer, bear, and wolves: https://www.nps.gov/yell/learn/news/23018.htm
Of course, authorities also have to remind people that it’s not a good idea to roast marshmallows on a volcano https://www.sciencealert.com/erm-no-usgs-tweets-roasting-marshmallows-over-a-volcano-is-not-safe and that you shouldn’t shoot at hurricanes https://www.cbsnews.com/baltimore/news/florida-sheriff-do-not-shoot-at-hurricane/
In all seriousness though, any wild animal can pose a threat: https://www.audacy.com/krld/news/world/canadian-woman-seriously-injured-by-moose
In fact, nature by itself can pose risks: https://abcnews.go.com/US/3-hikers-found-dead-search-rescue-effort-mount/story?id=128787732
Still, attacks on humans from grizzlies and wolves is exceedingly rare.
So go outside and enjoy nature, but be smart and be alert– and try to not worry so much.
https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/man-killed-by-flying-fire-hydrant-2555192.php
This is what i mean by oblivious. Don’t be so dismissive with disingenuous cherry picking of facts. Some people live in, not just go visit, wild lands. They deal with mountain lions, rattlesnakes and black bears. Take them in stride. Grizzlies and wolf packs are another level.
The reason the attacks by them are rare is because their predecessors hunted them out of existence in most places. In places where these predators and humans share an environment, they are not so rare. Increasing their numbers means increasing the risks. They can, like the articles linked, color a whole lot of the lives of people who live there. Children having to play inside electrified fencing with teachers trained in shooting, ranchers who are spending thousand on radio collars for cows, a wildlife control officers refusing to respond to so many complaints, back country campers having carry portable chargers to fence in their campsites.
You like to think these worries are silly from the safety of your suburbia. But the are serious to others. Don’t be so rude.
I’ve noticed that people don’t really fear things with which they they are familiar, but people do seem to harbor a great deal of anxiety towards the unfamiliar.
More people are killed in the US from cattle than from wolves, grizzlies, alligators, and spiders combined.
And tractors kill ten times as many Americans as cattle.
Guns kill 200 times as many Americans as tractors.
Should we also fear cattle, tractors, and guns?
I don’t. But then, I grew up around all three.
>IMHO:
>”I’ve noticed that people don’t really fear things with which they they are familiar…”
Most people ‘familiar’ with Grizzlies carry a .44 magnum.
But the Newsomites won’t let you do that.
But heck… I do have the perfect place.
Outskirts of LA and SF… residents (or ex-residents) will become very ‘familiar’ with them and have absolutely no anxiety… no… none at all !!!
Go figure.
You’re perfectly well allowed to carry a .44 Magnum in California– unless you have a violent criminal record.
You don’t have a criminal record, do you?
And I’m not really sure what you’re going on about with the LA and SF twaddle. There are no plans, nor will there be plans, to reintroduce either wolves nor grizzlies near urban areas.
They do have mountain lions, though. https://presidio.gov/about/press/mountain-lion-sightings-reported-in-san-francisco-and-the-presidio
Hello? Animals do the introducing all by themselves. Humans just regulate humans.
2026 Arkata Community Forest Progressive Grizzly Rewilding Initiative.
Arkata Community Forest Pilot Grizzly Rewilding Initiative? It’s not what they think………
This is just the usual ad hominem attack. Along with an extensive list of other logic failures like Quantitative Fallacy, Appeal to Ridicule Fallacy, Incomplete Fallacy, Red Herring Fallacy, etc.
BTW anyone who works with cattle, tractors or guns knows or should know how to manage them to avoid getting hurt. Grizzlies and wolves don’t care to be managed as even much as pretty much domesticated cattle tolerate yet proximity to cattle kill not a few each year who are familiar with them. Not a reasonable argument for pontificating that lack of familiarity is the cause for fear. As one articles that I linked that you fail to address, people who are familiar with Grizzlies fence in their children to protect them.
“Hard Truths of Conservation”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0ZUW760eMU