The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) euthanized four gray wolves from the Beyem Seyo pack, the agencies announced in a statement on October 24, 2025.
The action follows months of intensive non-lethal efforts to deter the wolves from preying on livestock in Sierra Valley, according to the agencies.
These wolves were responsible for 70 livestock losses between March 28 and September 10, 2025, accounting for 63% of the total livestock losses in California at the time. In the same period, there were 110 confirmed or probable wolf-caused livestock losses across the state.
Between September 10 and October 14, 2025, 17 additional confirmed or probable wolf-related livestock losses were recorded.
The wolves removed included a breeding pair (WHA08M and LAS23F), a female (BEY01F) and a male (BEY12M). The male wolf (BEY12M) was juvenile and was unintentionally killed after being mistaken for the breeding male due to its similar color and size, CDFW said.
Two additional juveniles of the pack (BEY15M and BEY17M) were found dead and are believed to have died before the operation began. The cause of their deaths is unknown. However, juvenile gray wolf deaths from natural causes are common, the agency added.
Behavioral Shift in the Wolves
The four wolves had become habituated to cattle as their primary food source, CDFW said. This behavioral shift threatens both livestock and the environmental integrity of wolf recovery.
Despite using drones, non-lethal bean bags, all-terrain vehicles, foot presence, diversionary feeding, fladry installation, and round-the-clock field presence, the wolves continued to prey on cattle.
Staff continue to safely capture and relocate the remaining juvenile wolves to wildlife facilities to prevent the spread of learned behavior.
Gray wolves typically prey on wild ungulates, such as deer and elk, not livestock. The Beyem Seyo pack were habitually preying on cattle and passing that behavior to their offspring, which would leave to form their own packs. These young wolves could then teach the same cattle-preying behavior, CDFW said.
This behavior change not only undermines recovery efforts for the species but may also change generational feeding patterns. The dependency on livestock also brings wolves closer to human communities.
Not an Easy Decision
Gray wolves are protected as an endangered species under state and federal law. Lethal removal is permissible only under strict conditions.
The decision was not made lightly, nor was it easy, said CDFW Director Charlton H. Bonham.
“Despite extensive non-lethal efforts, including hazing and adaptive tools used by our Summer Strike Team, these wolves continued to prey on livestock. The situation with this pack is far outside any comparable experience across the state or the West, making the long-term recovery of gray wolves much harder,” Bonham said.
CDFW worked with USFWS to ensure the actions taken were necessary and consistent with federal law.
While the presence of wolves in California is an impressive ecological return, their reemergence is a significant, disruptive change for rural communities, he added.
Gray wolves had disappeared from California nearly a century ago, according to the CDFW. They began to return to California through natural migration from Oregon in 2011. Most of California’s wolves inhabit the state’s northeastern region, with one pack residing in southern Sierra Nevada.
Wolves are California’s most iconic species, but the Beyem Seyo’s reliance on cattle is not suitable for the long-term recovery of wolves or the people, Bonham said.
The action follows the months-long effort by CDFW’s Summer Strike Team. The Summer Strike Team is programmed to prevent livestock attacks on ranching properties in the Sierra Valley.
The team deployed over 18,000 staff hours across 114 days, engaging in 95 hazing events that prevented greater loss in cattle deaths. A total of 18 Sierra Valley ranches enrolled in the program.
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This is awful!! Endangered, yet they kill a mating pair and accidentally killed a male youth and another wolf in the process. Because they ate cattle. WTF did they expect to happen? We have encroached on their territory. Cattle is fair game in their territory. We don’t get our cake and eat it too. If we want to bring back species from the endangered list, we need to push back our building boundaries and give them their land back. This is defeating the purpose and just horrible.
Quit eating meat. Or are you a vegan? Beef isn’t made in a lab, dude.
Just buy Argentinian beef…..
It’s always all or nothin when you’re a simpleton.
and actually, beef IS made in labs….has been for over a decade and soon it’ll be on the american market. it’s already marketed in other countries. again….do some reading before you step up. have a nice day.
thats a lot of assumptions on your part. sorry dude, i don’t eat cow or pig. wolves do, historically. keep your snarky comments to yourself basic.
Fully agree. Ranchers should be compensated for losses, and should use herd protection dogs to deter wolves.
It’ll never happen, but I’m just curious what funding source you think should be used to compensate cattle ranchers for killed livestock. General fund? A special tax on beef?
tax the beef, a lot. that will take care of quite a few things all at once.
I totally agree! It wouldn’t bother me one little bit, as I eat beef less than once a month. But the proceeds from that tax should go to air and water pollution mitigation efforts first, in my opinion.
I was just curious how zippy would try to argue that ranchers should be compensated by the taxpayers for choosing to raise their cattle within reach of wolf populations, which is kind of a wild idea, or from what other source of funds.
The Democrats have spent well over $24 Billion attempting to combat homelessness in California, which has only resulted homelessness increasing exponentially.
Does taxing beef for the costs associated by predation from wolves make sense to you?
Market rate for steers in Ca is about $880. The State wastes staggering amounts of money, at least this seems to be a reasonable response to the States reintroduction of wolf populations.
Your president is bailing out Argentinian cattle farmers with 20 billion and Argentinian soybean farmers get another 20 billion dollar bail out. Make American ranchers and farmers great again.
Hmm, you could have chosen lots of topics to link in some kind of whataboutism, like climate change, water management, pollution, special interest’s outsized influence on politics, etc. But homelessness? Weird.
ZIPS – you don’t know what exponentially means.
Unfortunately that term is steadily being disassociated with its actual mathematical meaning, which few people seem to comprehend anymore.
did you factor in that our population dwarfs other states, even many states combined. also, the inflow of homeless from the south into California is large. also the inflated housing market, jobs that don’t pay = to the states rental prices since the 1990s. all of that matters and is a factor in homelessness. also mental health issues and addiction play into this. So please explain where you got 24b from and please explain to us how you would do it differently when you’re trying to play whackamole with homeless showing up here daily from other locations.
They should try fencing. In Minnosota near Voyageurs National Park, fencing works very well.