SAN FRANCISCO – Wildlife officials have ceased the active search for two juvenile gray wolves that had previously been part of a pack responsible for the deaths of numerous cattle in Northern California’s Sierra Valley last summer, according to an announcement on Tuesday.
The young wolves were among the Beyem Seyo pack, which was reported to have killed or injured at least 92 cows and calves over a seven-month timeframe in 2025. This information was unveiled in a recent study by two researchers from the University of California, Davis.
Gray wolves in California are protected by state law and the federal Endangered Species Act. Efforts to develop a national recovery plan for wolves were under consideration during President Joe Biden’s administration but were halted during President Donald Trump’s tenure in November.
In a statement released in October, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife revealed that they had euthanized four members of the Beyem Seyo pack, including three adults and one juvenile, following what they described as “an unprecedented level of livestock attacks in the Sierra Valley.” The department had intended to capture and relocate the remaining two wolves to specialized wildlife facilities to prevent the propagation of their behavior to other wolf populations in the state.
The department emphasized that gray wolves typically prey on wildlife such as deer and elk, rather than livestock, labeling the Beyem Seyo pack’s attacks on farm animals as “unprecedented.”
“These wolves had developed a habit of preying on cattle, a behavior that they were passing on to their offspring,” the department noted at the time. “This could lead to the formation of new packs with similar cattle-hunting tendencies.”
But following weeks of searching for the remaining two wolves, officials have “reduced efforts to capture” them, Katie Talbot, CDFW Deputy Director of Public Affairs, said in a statement.
“Despite best efforts from CDFW’s expert wolf biologists and law enforcement officers, we have not been able to find or get close enough to these young wolves to safely capture them,” Talbot said.
“We remain hopeful our continued remote monitoring will allow for sightings that will lead to safe capture of these juveniles,” she added.
Wildlife officials tried for months to deter the pack from attacking farm animals by using drones, nonlethal bean bags, installing flags or rope to deter them and having officers in the field 24 hours a day, seven days a week, but their efforts failed.
Gray wolves were eradicated in California early in the last century because of their perceived threat to livestock, with the last known native wolf killed in 1924 in Lassen County. Since their reintroduction in Idaho and at Yellowstone National Park in the mid-1990s, they’ve proliferated, with a pack reappearing in Northern California in 2015. The recovering population has meant increasing conflict with ranchers.
“It was a horrible summer here for everybody and the emotional strain was probably worse than the financial strain for most people. They did the right thing. We couldn’t go on living the way we were living,” said Rick Roberti, a cattle rancher in Plumas County and president of the California Cattlemen’s Association, who lost several animals.
Economist Tina Saitone and researcher Tracy Schohr said in UC Davis’ quarterly agricultural economics update released Friday that the Beyem Seyo’s pack depredations were unprecedented not only in the state but also nationally. The pack killed more livestock than the entire wolf population of Montana killed in 2024 and the killings of farm animals by the wolves in Wyoming in 2023.
In Montana, the state’s 1,100 wolves killed 54 domestic animals in 2024, and Wyoming’s 352 wolves killed 49 livestock in 2023, the scientists said.
In California, about 70 gray wolves were responsible for 175 livestock kills between January and October of last year, with the Beyem Seyo pack responsible for half of the killings, according to CDFW data.
Roberti said the attacks on livestock in Plumas and Sierra counties left many ranchers angry. He said he would like to see certain areas in the state declared “special zones” where people are allowed to hunt wolves that attack livestock.
“We’re pretty much in unison about thinking that it would help if we started taking out the ones that are just killing cattle and are too habituated to man or they’re not afraid of us,” he said.
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