An endangered predator has returned to California after disappearing more than 100 years ago.
At least 44 gray wolves have been sighted in the West Coast state, including a record 30 new pups this year alone, according to Axel Hunnicutt, gray wolf coordinator for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.
This is the largest increase in a century, with animals from seven different herds now in nine of the state’s 58 counties. Independent magazine from Marín reported.
But not everyone is happy about the return of the gray wolf and is concerned about the risk to farmers’ livestock.
Janna Gliatto, manager of Table Rock Ranch in Monatgue, said: Gate of Saint Francis:Our hands are tied. We have been invaded.
The last gray wolf was killed in the summer of 1924 after it was shot twice by a government hunter named Frank Koehler in Litchfield, about 75 miles from Lake Tahoe.
It would be nearly 90 years before the first gray wolf set foot on California soil after a young male crossed the border from Oregon in 2011. Now, there are 44, with a record 30 new pups (pictured: Big Chico Creek)
Gliatto explained how his cattle have been attacked by wolves but he can’t do anything about it.
The state’s Endangered Species Act dictates that a gray wolf can only be killed if it threatens a human.
Rick Roberti, a rancher in Plumas County, said one of his calves was killed by a wolf a quarter mile from his home and he, too, has no recourse.
“It puts a lot of stress on them,” he told The Journal. “Wolves chase the cattle, they stress them out, they get frantic, they make them run for miles and the cattle stampede through the fences.”
“The wolf is going to spread all over California. There’s nothing that can stop it. They’re going to move in and I think it’s going to be a crisis. We’re not prepared for that.”
Gray wolves are now found in nine of the state’s 58 counties and are spread across seven packs (pictured: San Francisco)
Steve Arnold, president of the California Cattlemen’s Association, said he plans to sue California once the wolf population grows to introduce more lax rules.
“We’re going to do everything we can to fix this,” he told The Journal.
The state helps ranchers protect their livestock through non-lethal methods such as fences and guard dogs.
In 2021, the state gave ranchers $3 million to compensate them for the cost of funding those non-lethal methods.
That money ran out in March of this year, but Gov. Gavin Newsom approved adding $600,000 to the program’s budget.
Meanwhile, many conservation groups are excited that gray wolves have become a more common sight in the state.
But some are calling it a “redemption story” to see wolves return to the Golden State. “It’s proven that California is wolf country,” Amaroq Weiss said.
“It’s a story of redemption, of renewal, inspiring,” Amaroq Weiss of the Center for Biological Diversity told The Journal. “It’s shown that California is wolf country.”
Biologists estimate that California could be home to nearly 500 wolves north of I-80, The Journal reported.
Wolves once roamed California and the American West for years until settlers began shooting and poisoning them in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
Before they returned, California’s last gray wolf was killed in the summer of 1924 after a government trapper named Frank Koehler shot it twice in Litchfield, about 75 miles from Lake Tahoe, according to The Journal..
But not everyone is happy about the gray wolf’s resurgence. Janna Gliatto, manager of Table Rock Ranch, believes the state has been “overrun.”
Koehler had set 21 traps near the remote town in an attempt to catch a coyote that had killed a farmer’s turkeys.
When he returned to check the traps, he found one was missing and followed the tracks for five miles until he came across the old, injured wolf.
It would be nearly 90 years before a gray wolf would again set foot on California soil: a young male crossed the border from Oregon in 2011.
Four years later, the first pack was reestablished in Siskiyou County, and by 2019, there were seven gray wolves in California.
Outside of California, wolf hunting laws are less strict.
Wyoming allows residents to shoot wolves on sight. In Idaho, hundreds of them are hunted each year. And in Oregon and Washington, the animal can be shot if it attacks livestock.
“Population growth poses significant challenges in terms of the population and agricultural landscape that currently exists,” Hunnicutt told SF Gate. “I have mixed feelings about that.”
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