New grey wolf pair found in Northern California as population grows

This new pack is just one of a growing number of grey wolf packs in California. Wolves have been migrating in from the northern Rockies after they were hunted to extinction in the state in the early 20th century.

Kent Laudon, a wolf biologist for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife said the population is growing so much they’re planning to start taking a snapshot at the end of every year.

“We haven’t been very concerned about it before, because our population has been so low that we had a pretty good idea of that,” he said. ”And now with more packs, it’s getting more difficult.”

Laudon said these California wolves mostly came from Oregon. They were first reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park and central Idaho in the mid-90s. Laudon said additional wolves also migrated into Montana from Canada, before making their way west.

“They can travel thousands of miles,” he said. “Wolves are coming here on their own from other places. A male wolf and a female wolf find each other in a particular location. They pair bond, they reproduce, a new pack happens.”

While the range of the wolves shows this new pack could be inside Lassen National Park, Laudon said that can be misleading, since a pack’s range can be up to 400 square miles.

Biologists will capture newly found wolves and give them satellite collars, so they can better track the wolves behavior and location. There are at least eight other packs in California, including one all the way south in the Sequoia National Forest.

Because the wolves are endangered in California, Laudon said it’s important to track them and work with ranchers to prevent the wolves from killing livestock. Still, there are a handful of livestock deaths every year.

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