Gray wolves are slowly repopulating California after being extirpated from the state in the early 1900s. This wolf, known as OR93, pictured in 2021, was born in Oregon but traveled through California before being killed in a vehicle collision.
California Department of Fish and Wildlife, AP
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California Department of Fish and Wildlife, AP
Gray wolves are slowly repopulating California after being extirpated from the state in the early 1900s. This wolf, known as OR93, pictured in 2021, was born in Oregon but traveled through California before being killed in a vehicle collision.
California Department of Fish and Wildlife, AP
After nearly a century of extinction in California, the gray wolf has returned to the state, a change that has been celebrated by conservationists and wildlife enthusiasts. But as their population has grown over the past decade, so has their population growth over the past decade. number of conflicts between wolves and ranchers.
This is the pattern that plays out in other stateswhere wolf numbers have recovered in recent years.
The latest example comes from Northern California, where state wildlife officials announced Friday that they had made the difficult decision to euthanize four wolves after “unprecedented level“attacks on livestock.
Between late March and early September, gray wolves from the Beyem Seyo pack—one of 10 wolf packs now confirmed in California—were responsible for 70 total livestock losses, according to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW). The agency said the losses accounted for nearly two-thirds of the total number of livestock attacks caused by wolves in the state during that time period.
“This decision was not made lightly or lightly,” said CDFW Director Charlton Bonham. in the statement. “Despite extensive non-lethal control efforts… these wolves continued to prey on livestock.”
Wildlife officials can Use a variety of non-lethal means to try to deter predators such as wolves from attacking livestock, including shooting into the air, displaying brightly colored flags around pastures, and driving around herds with ATVs and trucks.
Despite these efforts, wolves have become so dependent on cattle for food that “we haven't been able to break the cycle,” Bonham said. “Which is ultimately not good for the long-term recovery of wolves or humans.”
By the early 20th century, gray wolves were primarily hunted, trapped, and poisoned in the lower 48 states of the United States. The last wolves in California are believed to have been extirpated. by the 1920s. Wolves have since returned to the state on their own, spreading throughout Oregon and spreading how far south like the southern tip of the Sierra Nevada.
In other parts of the country, more recently in Colorado and especially in Yellowstone National ParkGray wolves have been reintroduced by wildlife authorities in an attempt to restore the areas' natural ecosystems.
Reintroductions and recolonizations have followed a similar pattern, with conservationists celebrating the return of the apex predator while ranchers in largely rural areas criticize their impact. for livelihood.
In 2020, during the first Trump administration, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service gray wolves removed from the Endangered Species Act in the lower 48 states, citing rising wolf populations in parts of the western U.S. and Upper Midwest—a move that ended federal protections for the species. Environmental groups sued over the decision, and a judge ordered the protections restored in 2022.
