A wolf has come to Los Angeles County for the first time in more than a century

"Around 6 a.m., the 3-year-old female sporting a black coat arrived in the mountains north of Santa Clarita, according to Axel Hunnicutt, gray wolf coordinator for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. Four hours earlier, she was traversing the desert south of Kern County, he said. He knows that because the wolf - known as BEY03F - is wearing a GPS collar. She was outfitted with one last May when she was spending time with the Yowlumni Pack in Tulare County."

""This signifies a historic moment in the return of wolves for California," said John Marchwick, a writer for the nonprofit California Wolf Watch. Marchwick credited the state Department of Fish and Wildlife's monitoring efforts and the animal's protection under the state Endangered Species Act, saying they "allowed for this individual's dispersal to be documented, but also for it to be realistically feasible.""

A three-year-old female gray wolf with a black coat arrived in Los Angeles County, the first documented presence there in at least a century. She reached mountains north of Santa Clarita around 6 a.m. after traversing desert south of Kern County four hours earlier. BEY03F wears a GPS collar fitted last May while with the Yowlumni Pack in Tulare County and dispersed about a week ago. Born in 2023 in Plumas County’s Beyem Seyo Pack, she has traveled more than 370 miles and crossed State Route 59 three times near Tehachapi. Officials say she remains on the move seeking a mate and suitable habitat. State monitoring and Endangered Species Act protections enabled documentation. Wolves were extirpated from California by trappers and hunters; the last documented wild wolf was shot in 1924.

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