Gray Wolf Updates

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) has released its California Gray Wolf Conservation and Management Annual Report 2025, summarizing wolf population monitoring, conservation, research, and management activities conducted throughout the state during calendar year 2025. The report can be accessed here and can also be found on CDFW’s gray wolf webpage: https://wildlife.ca.gov/Conservation/Mammals/Gray-Wolf. The most recent data on wolf status, covering January through March 2026, is also available on the wolf webpage under “Recent Reports”.

On behalf of CDFW, UC-Berkeley and UC Cooperative Extension are seeking input from livestock producers and interested parties who live in California on the future of wolf-livestock compensation. All survey responses are anonymous, and any data collected will be securely housed at UC and shared only in aggregate form with CDFW and the public. The survey can be accessed at the following link, takes approximately 20 minutes to complete, and will close on June 11th.

Take the Survey

This survey is part of CDFW’s ongoing review of the current wolf-livestock compensation program and is intended to gather feedback to help improve the pilot program established in 2021. It is separate from the survey distributed by UC in July 2025.

CDFW has posted several new documents to its gray wolf webpage. The new documents are the Quarterly Wolf News (January - March 2026 (PDF), the Approximate Area of Gray Wolf Activity Map: March 2026, and an updated version of California's Known Wolves - Past and Present: March 2026 (PDF).

CDFW's new Quarterly Wolf News Update summarizes known packs, areas of wolf activity, and dispersing wolves. It also summarizes wolf-livestock depredation investigations, compensation for confirmed and probable depredations, and outreach.

The new Approximate Area of Gray Wolf Activity map reflects CDFW’s known wolf activity through March 2026. CDFW relies on help from the public in determining the presence of wolf activity and encourages the public to report potential wolf sightings on its Gray Wolf Sightings Report page.

CDFW has posted its Quarterly Wolf News Updates: July - October 2025 (PDF), a new Approximate Area of Gray Wolf Activity Map (November 2025) (PDF), and an updated version of the Known Wolves - November 2025 (PDF). A new document, 2025 Wolf-Livestock Depredation Report (11.1.2025) (PDF) summarizes wolf-livestock conflict and is regularly updated.

CDFW's most recent Quarterly Wolf News Update highlights known packs, areas of wolf activity, a summary of wolf-livestock depredation investigations, and program communications for the quarter.

The new map of Approximate Area of Gray Wolf Activity, reflects known wolf activity as of November 2025 based on CDFW's monitoring of the species in the state. CDFW relies on help from the public in determining the presence of new wolf activity and encourages the public to report potential wolf sightings on its Gray Wolf Sightings Report page.

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) is changing how wolf-livestock depredation determinations are reported online. 

In the past, CDFW has posted individual depredation determination files for each investigation. Moving forward, these determinations will instead be posted in a single, regularly updated file that summarizes all investigations for a given calendar year in a table format. 

This change is being made for two main reasons: 

• Faster public access to information: By streamlining the reporting process, CDFW can reduce the time between when an investigation is completed and when the information is available to the public.

• Growing number of investigations: As California’s wolf population increases, the number of livestock depredation investigations has also risen. A single summary table describing the results of all investigations will allow stakeholders and the public to more efficiently obtain investigation results.

The summary file will include the same core information previously provided in individual forms, and it will be updated on a more regular basis to ensure timely and transparent communication.  

In addition, CDFW’s gray wolf webpage will contain regularly updated graphs summarizing the number of investigations and confirmed/probable losses by county and by pack.  

Livestock producers who have had an investigation can contact CDFW if they would like additional details about the determination; however no additional information will be necessary if you choose to apply for compensation for confirmed and/or probable wolf depredations.  

The latest version of this document (11/1/2025) has been posted online: 2025 Wolf-Livestock Depredation Report (11.1.2025) (PDF)