California’s wolf population is growing. State biologists say there are now about 40 wolves across several packs.

KQED’s Alix Soliman reports:

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Wolves became locally extinct in California in the 1920s — but no one knows how many roamed here before then. The first to return was a male who wandered in from Oregon in 2011.

Amaroq Weiss is a wolf advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity. 

“and having them establish their families in all of these places that scientists, through modeling — just computer modeling — said this is good wolf habitat, is very cool because these wolves — they’re not carrying that map in their back pocket — they’re finding these places by instinct.”

A decade ago, wolves here gained protection under both the state and federal endangered species acts. Weiss says state listing is especially important as the House of Representatives recently voted to remove their federal protection. 

I’m Alix Soliman, KQED News

Photo by Gary Kramer / USFWS