Wolves Invade Los Angeles
By Scott Sway – Vice President, NEC Board of Directors
Not exactly an invasion – but for the first time in the last 100 years, a wild wolf has migrated to Los Angeles County, and it has been getting a lot of attention.
The Historic Journey
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- Arrival: Wolf BEY03F entered far Northern Los Angeles county around 6:00 AM on February 7, 2026, wearing a GPS tracking collar she was detected in the mountains northwest of Lancaster and north of Santa Clarita.
- Origins: Female wolf BEY03F born into the Beyem Seyo Pack in Plumas County in 2023, she dispersed in 2025 and traveled over 370 miles south through the Sierra Nevada mountains looking for a mate.
- Tracking: Scientists have monitored her progress using a GPS collar fitted in May 2025. She was previously seen near the Yowlumni Pack in Tulare County before continuing her solo journey south.
- Current Status: As of mid-February 2026, her tracking data indicated she had begun moving back slightly to the north, suggesting she did not find a mate or permanent habitat in the L.A. area. Breeding season for wolves in California and the western US is late January through the month of March.
Young wolves often disperse in search of mates to start their own packs.
BEY01F, a female born in the 2023 litter of the Beyem Seyo pack after being released close to where she was captured with a new collar, January 2025. (Photo credit: Axel Hunnicutt/CDFW)
Wolves started crossing the state line from Oregon in 2011 when the first wolf in a 100 years OR-7 briefly crossed the Oregon border into California.
OR-7 was a descendant of wolves that were reintroduced to IDAHO in 1996. They eventually grew in numbers and lone wolves started to disperse from their natal packs and ended up in Oregon. OR-7 did not find a mate in California and returned to Oregon and did find a mate and years later other wolves including his descendants in Oregon found their way and started reproducing in North Eastern California.
The past year or so has seen a few major events for wolves in California.
The California wolf population is now between 50 to 60 wolves.
Three new wolf packs were documented in 2025.
With the increase in wolf numbers the incidents of wolves killing livestock have also increased.
In the fall of 2025 4 wolves from Beyem Seyo pack were euthanized because of multiple incidents of livestock depredation. This was the first time California Fish and Wildlife had used lethal control on a wolf pack.This pack was responsible for the vast majority wolf kills of livestock in California for 2025. Multiple attempts to use non lethal control methods had failed.