CALIFORNIA – Decades of conservation efforts have led to gray wolves returning to California after a century of the predators being absent from the Golden State’s rural mountains and forests.
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) announced on Oct. 29 a collaborative effort with the University of Berkeley to help spread awareness and education about the state’s gray wolves while allowing research to identify effective methods of ensuring that impacts on ranchers are minimized. The California Wolf Project (CAWP) has also received support from the National Geographic Society.
“It is exciting to see wolves back in California, but there are a lot of questions about where they fit amongst a rapidly changing landscape with new challenges for agencies and livestock producers,” said Arthur Middleton, CAWP co-lead and Goertz Professor of Wildlife Management at UC Berkeley in a press release. “We hope our growing team can provide new support to those interested in and impacted by the state’s growing wolf population.”
State wildlife officials believe gray wolves first returned to California in 2011 as individuals from an established pack in Oregon crossed the border. The first pack to establish itself in the state was in 2015, known as the Shasta Pack. Shortly after the pack became established, it suddenly disappeared. It is not known whether ranchers, who had standoffs with a female from the pack in late 2015, killed the wolves or if they left the area. Just one wolf is known from that original pack who was most recently seen in the mountains of Nevada in 2016.
Today, there are seven established packs in California numbering an estimated 65 individuals. A descendant of the lone male that survived the Shasta Pack formed a new pack with a male from the Lassen Pack in 2020. In 2023, the pack established itself in the Giant Sequoia National Forest in Tulare County near the Tule River. That pack has been named the Yowlumni Pack in honor of the Yowlumni band of the Tule River Yokuts tribe.
“I’m grateful to the Tule River Tribe for their gift in naming this wolf family,” said Amaroq Weiss, a senior wolf advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity when the naming of the wolf pack was announced. “It’s a beautiful reminder that wolves and Indigenous people once shared the landscape here. The wolves’ return to this region marks a multi-thousand-year heritage of wolves and people coexisting.”
“Given the wolf population increases we’ve recorded in the last few years and the management challenges that have resulted, there’s no better time for this partnership between CDFW and UC Berkeley,” said Axel Hunnicutt, the State Gray Wolf Coordinator at CDFW. “There are so many important management questions relating to the ecological, economic and social effects of wolf recolonization in the state that already impact California’s ecosystems and its people. The formation of CAWP is expanding our capacity to address these questions in earnest.”
One goal of the CAWP is to help define a model for intelligent conservation efforts and research that can be used at the state and national model for a variety of efforts to protect endangered and threatened species. The gray wolf is recognized as an endangered animal by California and the federal government.
“The Wildlife Program at UC Berkeley is committed to fulfilling our university’s mandate to support the people, economies and nature of California with science, education and outreach. CAWP embodies those priorities and embraces the diversity of perspectives that accompany the recovery of large carnivores,” said Justin Brashares, CAWP co-lead and Professor of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation at UC Berkeley.
It is unknown how many gray wolves were in California before European immigration, but the last sighting of a wolf in the state was in 1924. Hunting and logging were likely responsible for the decline in the state’s wolf population, two factors that continue to be a threat to the re-emerging population today. The hope of researchers with UC Berkeley and the CDFW is that through research, the population can be allowed to continue growing while limiting the damage done to livestock.
