A gray wolf has been spotted in Los Angeles County for the first time in over 100 years, according to a report.
The three-year-old female wolf, known as BEY03F, was spotted in the mountains north of Santa Clarita around 6 a.m. Saturday, Axel Hunnicutt, the gray wolf coordinator for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, told the Los Angeles Times.
Four hours earlier, the same wolf was spotted in the desert, south of Kern County, Hunnicutt said.
Officials were able to track BEY03F using a GPS collar that she was fitted with last May.
The wolf is seeking a partner, “and the fact that she is still on the move is an indication that she has not found a mate and suitable habitat,” Hunnicutt said.
The wolf was born in 2023 in Plumas County’s Beyem Seyo Pack, and has since traveled over 370 miles south, officials said.
John Marchwick, a writer for the nonprofit California Wolf Watch, told the Times the sighting was “a historic moment in the return of wolves to California.”
Marchwick credited the return to the state Department of Fish and Wildlife’s monitoring efforts and the animal’s protection under the state Endangered Species Act.
California’s wolf population was wiped out by hunters and trappers about a century ago, but returned in 2011 when a wolf ventured over the border from Oregon, according to the report.
Officials believe there are at least 60 wolves in California today.
As of Sunday, BEYO3F was believed to be in the San Gabriel Mountains, where no established wolf packs are known to live, but she could meet one in the Tehachapi Mountains and form a pack.
She could also continue moving north along the Sierra Nevada and potentially travel hundreds of miles longer before finding a mate.
The one thing that we do know is the more that she moves, the more that she has to encounter human infrastructure, and particularly highways,” Hunnicutt said. “And we know that in California, the highest known cause of mortality for wolves is vehicle strikes.”
