CDFW wolf collaring January 2025 photo by Malia Byrtus/California Wolf Project. Image is available for media use.
State’s Wolf Renaissance Highlights West Coast Recovery
SAN FRANCISCO— The California Department of Fish and Wildlife reported Tuesday that three new wolf packs have been confirmed in the state. These new wolf families are the Ishi pack in eastern Tehama County, the Tunnison pack in central Lassen County and the Ashpan pack in eastern Shasta County. This brings California’s total current known number of packs to 10.
“How wonderful to witness another year of continued growth in California’s recovering wolf population,” said Amaroq Weiss, a senior wolf advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity. “It’s inspiring to watch this renaissance and we should do everything we can to ensure California’s wolves have every chance to thrive.”
Confirmation of these new packs shows the ongoing progress in wolf reestablishment and recovery across the West Coast. The first packs were confirmed in 2008 in Washington and Oregon and in 2015 in California. By the end of 2024 there were 75 individual wolf pack territories across the three states.
A new time-lapse map prepared by the Center depicts the renaissance of wolves across the West Coast region from 2008 to 2024. The map also confirms that wolves here are still in the early stages of recovery since there’s abundant identified suitable wolf habitat that has not yet been occupied. Confirmation of the Ishi, Tunnison and Ashpan packs brings the tally to at least 78 wolf family territories on the West Coast.
California’s other seven packs consist of the Whaleback pack in Siskiyou County; the Lassen pack ranging across parts of Lassen and Plumas counties; the Diamond pack straddling portions of Plumas and Lassen counties; the Beyem Seyo pack which inhabits Sierra County; the Ice Cave pack whose territory touches portions of Lassen, Plumas, Shasta and Tehama counties; the Harvey pack ranging in parts of Lassen and Shasta counties; and the Yowlumni pack in Tulare County.
There are additionally two known small groups of two to three wolves each in northern California, one in southern Modoc County and the other in southern Plumas County, which do not yet qualify as packs. The latest wolf territory map posted by the department shows where each pack and each small group of wolves are ranging.
The department’s quarterly report provided information on California’s wolves from the start of 2025 up to the end of March. The report mentioned that a dispersing wolf was detected on a camera trap in central Kern County. It also reported that the deaths of two wolves from the Yowlumni pack in Tulare County were discovered this quarter and are under investigation.
“It’s been a bumpy road lately for California wolves as some northern counties have enacted emergency resolutions based on misunderstanding and misinformation,” said Weiss. “Decades of research shows that conflicts between livestock, wolves and people are rare and preventable. These magnificent animals have immense value because they help keep nature wild and healthy, and that ultimately benefits humans as well.”
Background
The first wolf in nearly a century to make California part of his range was OR-7, a radio-collared wolf from Oregon that entered California in late 2011. OR-7 traveled across seven northeastern counties in California before returning to southwestern Oregon, where he found a mate and settled down, forming the Rogue pack.
Several of OR-7’s offspring have since come to California and established packs. Those include the original breeding male of the Lassen pack and the breeding female of the Yowlumni pack residing in Tulare County. The Shasta pack, California’s first confirmed wolf pack in nearly 100 years, was discovered in 2015 but disappeared a few months later.
The gray wolf (Canis lupus) is native to California but was driven to extinction in the state by the mid-1920s. After OR-7 left Oregon for California, the Center and allies successfully petitioned the state to fully protect wolves under California’s endangered species act. Wolves are also federally protected in California under the federal Endangered Species Act. It is illegal to intentionally kill any wolves in the state except in defense of human life.
The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 1.8 million members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places.
