To date, there are nine active wolf packs that call California home — and one of them just shocked conservation experts by entering a new territory.
According to the California Wolf Watch, a pack of endangered gray wolves has been spotted living in Lassen Volcanic National Park — a first for the park in recorded history.
California Wolf Watch said that Axel Hunnicutt, a state wolf coordinator for California Department of Fish and Wildlife, confirmed the reports.
“It’s official! Wolves have been confirmed living in Lassen Volcanic National Park in Northern California!” California Wolf Watch wrote in a Facebook post.
“While gray wolves have been confirmed dispersing through the park such as OR-54 — a female wolf born in 2016 to Oregon’s Rogue Pack — this is the first time a pack has been confirmed inside the national park.”
The pack — consisting of “two breeding adults” and a “minimum of two pups” — was first sighted on a trail camera in October 2024, but the information only recently came to light when the California Department of Fish and Wildlife shared the news with the public in mid-November.
According to California Wolf Watch, the new, yet-to-be-named wolf pack likely descends from neighboring members of the Lassen Pack, a group of wolves that reside in Lassen County outside of Lassen Volcanic National Park.
The Lassen Pack is one of the most well-known and oft-photographed gray wolf packs in California.
In 2017, young pups from the Lassen Pack were spotted playing on trail cameras set up by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife — and it is possible that one of those same pups is now leading a new pack of their own.
Gray wolves are classified as federally endangered in the state of California under the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Endangered Species Act.
Their population decline is attributed to habitat loss and human interference. In recent years, up to 58% of known, collared wolf deaths were caused by humans — and that’s due in large part to farmers defending their cattle.
Unfortunately, shrinking habitats have led wolves to attack local livestock instead of wild prey, which is all the more reason to protect and expand their natural habitat.
While much is still to be learned about the wolf pack spotted in Lassen Volcanic National Park, experts agree that the growing number of gray wolves is a testament to reforestation efforts and public awareness campaigns centered on the importance of conserving the species.
“Wolves rewild the landscape, and that’s good not just for the wolves but for entire ecosystems,” Amaroq Weiss, senior wolf advocate for the Center for Biological Diversity, told the Los Angeles Times last year.
“California years ago laid out a welcome mat for wolves, and we can keep it there if we don’t get led astray by old fears and misconceptions.”
Header image via the California Department of Fish and Wildlife
