Hopeful News As Four New Wolf Packs Have Been Confirmed In California, Bringing The Total To Eight Wolf Packs In The State

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife has reported that four new wolf packs have been confirmed in California in the past five months.

With these four new yet-to-be-named packs, there are now eight wolf packs known to have established a home in California since 2015.

“Holy smokes what fantastic progress we’re witnessing in wolf recovery in California,” said Amaroq Weiss, a senior wolf advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity. “I’m so grateful that both state and federal endangered species protections are allowing wolves to safely reestablish in the Golden State’s beautiful landscapes.”

The four new wolf families were discovered incrementally this year, with each confirmation demonstrating that, as predicted by scientists, California has ample suitable habitat for wolves.

In March, photographs of three wolves in Tehama County were captured on a trail camera on private land. The department is engaged in survey efforts to determine their current numbers, origin, and if they gave birth to pups this spring.

The second pack, discovered in Plumas County, has at least two adults and two pups. The breeding adults for the new pack in Plumas County have been genetically identified as partial siblings from a double litter born to the Lassen pack in 2020. The department was able to capture and radio-collar one of them.

The third pack, in Lassen County, has a minimum of two adults and an unknown number of pups. The breeding female of the new Lassen County pack is an offspring of the Whaleback pack’s 2021 litter, her mate’s origin is unknown.

The fourth and most recently discovered pack that WAN reported on, seen in July in Tulare County in Giant Sequoia National Monument, consists of an adult female and four offspring. The adult female came to California from Oregon’s Rogue pack, and the sire of her offspring came from the Lassen pack’s 2020 double litter. This pack’s establishment in this region marks the southernmost location of any wolf pack in California in modern history.

“The homecoming of wolves to California is an epic story of a resilient species we once tried to wipe from the face of the Earth,” said Weiss. “It’s such a joyful moment to receive the news of these four new wolf families and I hope to see them thrive in the years to come.”

The Shasta pack, California’s first confirmed wolf pack in nearly 100 years, was discovered in 2015 but disappeared a few months later. The three additional packs already established in California include the Lassen pack, which resides in parts of Lassen and Plumas Counties and was confirmed in 2017; the Whaleback pack in eastern Siskiyou County which was formed in late 2020 to early 2021; and the Beckwourth pack in Plumas County which was confirmed in spring 2021.

Although federal protections for the gray wolf have been restored in many states, these safeguards continue to be challenged. What’s even worse is that states where wolves have no protections, including Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming have even passed legislation encouraging the inhumane slaughter of up to 90% of their wolf populations. Hunters in these states are permitted to kill wolves in horrific ways, including baiting, trapping, choke-hold snares, explosives, running wolves down with ATV’s and packs of dogs, and even killing pups and pregnant mothers in their dens.

Please take action by asking your representatives to put pressure on U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland and President Biden to #RelistWolves, HERE!