A wolf arrived in Los Angeles County on Saturday morning, marking the first time the top predator has been documented in the area in at least a century, according to state wildlife officials.
Around 6 a.m., the 3-year-old female sporting a black coat arrived in the mountains north of Santa Clarita, according to Axel Hunnicutt, gray wolf coordinator for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.
Four hours earlier, she was crossing the desert in southern Kern County, she said.
He knows this because the wolf, known as BEY03F, wears a GPS collar. He was outfitted with one last May while spending time with the Yowlumni Pack in Tulare County. She dispersed from that area about a week ago.
“His journey is not over,” Hunnicutt said.
BEY03F is looking for a mate “and the fact that it is still on the move is an indication that it has not found a mate or suitable habitat.”
The location of the collar on a wolf on Saturday. The CDFW wolf tracker provides the last known location of satellite-collared wolves within California to help livestock producers mitigate wolf-livestock conflict.
(California Department of Fish and Wildlife)
You have come a long way to find love. Born in 2023 in Beyem Seyo Pack of Plumas County, she traveled more than 370 miles and hiked along the Sierra Nevada to reach her current location. It has been dangerous. Two days ago, he crossed State Route 59 three times near Tehachapi.
“This marks a historic moment in the return of wolves to California,” said John Marchwick, a writer for the nonprofit California Wolf Watch.
Marchwick credited the state Department of Fish and Wildlife's monitoring efforts and protection of the animal under the state's Endangered Species Act, saying they “allowed the dispersal of this individual to be documented, but also to be realistically feasible.”
California's wolves were wiped out by hunters and trappers about a century ago, and the last documented wild wolf was killed in 1924.
It wasn't until 2011 that broad-nosed canids returned, when a wolf ventured into the state from Oregon. He did not stay but his arrival heralded his return.
Today, there are believed to be at least 60 wolves roaming the Golden State.
The future of BEY03F is full of possibilities. Although there are no known wolves in the San Gabriel Mountains (where he was this morning) or the Tehachapi Mountains, there could be a male living there. If there is, and she knows him and mates with him, she could form a pack. Or it could head back north, along the Sierra Nevada and potentially hundreds of miles beyond.
“The one thing we do know is that the more you move, the more human infrastructure you have to encounter, and in particular roads,” Hunnicutt said. “And we know that in California, the highest known cause of wolf mortality is vehicle collisions.”
A fellow traveler from the south, OR-93, ventured into San Luis Obispo County in 2021 before being hit by a car in Kern County.
