Two new wolf packs have been discovered in Northern California, giving hope to a species that is in desperate need of resurgence a century after they disappeared from the state.
SF Gate reported that wildlife officials had confirmed the existence of the gray wolves earlier this month. The animal is native to California but has been scarce in recent decades.
One of the wolf packs consists of four wolves, two of which are pups, and has been seen moving around the area south of Lassen Volcanic National Park.
“This finding is noteworthy,” California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s wolf biologist Axel Hunnicutt told the outlet. “In that, it confirms, along with the other recently confirmed pack, that California’s wolf population continues to expand in both size and extent within the state.”
The second pack, which was spotted more recently and has been named the Diamond pack, contains two adult wolves that roam about 50 miles north of Lake Tahoe.
Hunnicutt shared that biologists have watched the pair to see if they meet the criteria of a pack throughout the last year. To be considered a pack, one piece of criteria includes two or more wolves being spotted four or more times in six months in the same area.
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife has confirmed that there are nine packs of grey wolves in the state, including three new ones this year.
The wolves were once abundant from the mid-1800s to the early 1900s, but hunting and the introduction of humans to the region all but destroyed their population. The issue was so bad that by the 1920s, the state considered them extinct.
Federally and at the state level, the animals are considered endangered.
In 2011, a wolf that was part of a pack in Oregon abandoned its pack and walked over the state’s border, making it the first to settle there in decades.
The animals are still protected under the Endangered Species Act, meaning it’s illegal to kill or harm them, but some ranchers are finding it difficult.
Several locals have reported their livestock being victim to the wolves, which can weigh up to 150 pounds. Because of this, Hunnicutt shared that he had “mixed emotions” about the animal’s reemergence.
“The growing population brings significant challenges in regards to the people and agricultural landscape that’s currently theorem,” Hunnicut said.