California Wildlife Agency Kills Wolves Despite Endangered Species Protections
California’s wildlife department killed four gray wolves in the Sierra Valley in late October, in a dramatic escalation of tactics to address growing predation of cattle by the canids and despite protection under state and federal endangered species laws.
the department says the wolves killed at least 88 cattle in Sierra and plumas counties and continued to target livestock despite months of nonlethal deterrents deployed to drive them away.
The state employed lethal action despite its compensation program, which pays ranchers for cattle killed by wolves, and additional federal subsidies paid to the livestock industry at large.
The state wildlife agency confirmed a new pack — the Grizzly pack– earlier this week with two adults and a pup.Though the state’s wolf population remains small and vulnerable, ranchers are increasingly concerned about livestock deaths.
In late October,California wildlife authorities announced they captured and euthanized three adult gray wolves and shot a juvenile dead,all from the Beyem Seyo pack in the Sierra Valley. Wardens killed them, the California Department of fish and Wildlife (CDFW) said, as the wolves had become “habituated to preying on cattle” rather than hunting elk, deer and other wild prey.
The wolves killed were a breeding pair, an adult female, and a juvenile male “mistaken” for the adult male.Officers also found the remains of two other juveniles from the same pack that were severely decomposed. The cause of death remains unknown, and authorities are investigating.
This pack took down at least 88 head of cattle between January and October 2025 according to a new CDFW report – about half of the 175 livestock deaths statewide and one of the highest rates in any western U.S. state where wolves live.
The killings follow months of using nonlethal deterrents to keep wolves away, including drones, all-terrain vehicles, flapping strips of shining-colored “fladry” strung along fences, and round-the-clock human presence. CDFW deployed a strike team in June,where officers spent more than 18,000 staff hours using these methods,also called hazing,but the wolves continued killing cattle.
“The Beyem Seyo pack became so reliant on cattle at an unprecedented level, and we could not break the cycle, which ultimately is not good for the long-term recovery of wolves or for people,” CDFW director charlton H. Bonham said in a press release. So far, the state’s nine other wolf packs haven’t targeted livestock in this way, and the department continues to monitor them.
It’s the first state-authorized killing of gray wolves in California since they…
## Mistakes made, lessons to be learned
After a century’s absence, the state is now home to 50-70 wolves belonging to 10 packs, most of them concentrated in California’s northeast. As numbers grow, livestock deaths are rising. Wolves killed 18 head of cattle in 2022, 32 in 2023, 52 in 2024, and at least 175 between January and October 2025. Between 2015 and 2024, at least 142 head of cattle – about 0.002% of California’s nearly 7-million-strong herd – have been lost to wolves.
Compared with other states, those numbers are high. In 2024,Oregon’s 200 wolves were responsible for 69 recorded livestock deaths. Washington state’s 230 wolves killed 40. However, these two states have just over a million head of cattle each, far fewer than California.
To foster coexistence,California launched a compensation pilot program in 2021 that paid for the losses caused by wolves. It also reimbursed ranchers for installing nonlethal deterrents to keep wolves away and covered indirect costs from the wolves’ presence. About two-thirds of the $3 million allocated for compensation under the pilot covered deterrents.
It was a voluntary program, and participating ranchers in Siskiyou, lassen, Plumas and Tulare counties – where wolf-livestock conflicts were the highest in the state – were awarded grants on a first-come basis, CDFW Center for Biological Diversity (CC-BY 2.0).
Spoorthy Raman is a staff writer at Mongabay, covering all things wild with a special focus on lesser-known wildlife, the wildlife trade, and environmental crime.
As wolves roam California, livestock losses remain low, yet ranchers’ fears grow.
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