A wolf made history last Saturday when it roamed the mountains of Los Angeles County, where its species had not been recorded in more than a century.
He had come to look for a partner. Mid to late winter marks the breeding season for wolves. Wide-nosed canids are fertile only once a year – precisely on Valentine’s Day.
But the three-year-old wolf — known as BEY03F — is spending a romantic vacation in Kern County. He kept his time in LA short, as he headed north over the state line Monday morning, on the state’s GPS-tracked wolf trail.
Now, time is of the essence for her to find a husband.
“Unlike dogs that can mate a few times a year, go into heat a few times a year, wolves don’t,” said Amaroq Weiss, senior wolf advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity. “So it’s important that they find a mate before this window of time. You’re really kind on the border here. It’s possible that she can find a mate within two weeks or so and she’s still fertile. But time is running out and the clock is ticking.”
Last known location of BEY03F.
(California Department of Fish and Wildlife)
BEY03F, also called “bae” by others, is from northeastern California, Plumas County, where he was born in the Beyem Seyo pocket in 2023.
Last year, the pack made headlines for an unprecedented number of livestock attacks – leading wildlife officials to expel several members.
But BEY03F left his family before that happened, according to John Marchwick of California Wolf Watch, an education group.
He spent time with the Yowlumni pack, a group of wolves south of the state in Tulare County, where he was reunited in May, said Axel Hunnicutt, gray wolf coordinator for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.
He went a long way in search of love. To get from his birthplace to the mountains north of Santa Clarita, he traveled more than 370 kilometers and traveled the length of the Sierra Nevada.
As of Saturday morning, he was south of State Route 58, the dividing line between the Tehachapi and Sierra Nevada mountains, according to Hunnicutt.
Hunnicutt assumed he was heading north because he encountered no signs of other wolves during his southern jaunt. An infrastructure like Grapevine may have driven him away.
“If [it] he wasn’t there, I’d bet he would have continued west to Ventura County,” Hunnicutt said in the text.
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Of course, where he goes from here is strange. Hunnicutt said he may return south, but based on his movement, he believes he will continue north on Sunday.
“It’s impossible to say, but it keeps me getting up in the morning to look at each day!” he said.
Unlike mountain lions, wolves need a lot of open space, according to Beth Pratt, California regional director for the National Wildlife Federation.
That’s not LA’s luck.
“You will never see a pack of wolves running around Griffith Park,” he said.
However, he did not rule out that a wolf could one day enter the massive Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing being built over the 101 Freeway.
Some see BEY03F’s arrival in LA as a major conservation win for the endangered species.
“This marks a historic moment for the return of wolves in California,” Marchwick, of California Wolf Watch, told The Times when the sighting first began.
California wolves were exterminated by hunters and trappers over the past century, with the last wild wolf shooting in 1924.
It wasn’t until 2011 that predators returned, when wolves entered the state from Oregon. He did not stay, but his arrival signaled their return.
Today, it is believed that as many as 60 wolves, at least, roam the Golden State.
Not everyone is happy about their return, and challenges remain. It creates tension in rural areas where animals eat livestock.
Their biggest threat is roads, especially highways. Motor vehicle collisions are the leading cause of death for the state’s wolves.
In 2021, a wolf known as OR-93 caused havoc as it entered San Luis Obispo County and possibly southern Ventura County.
His journey ended there crashed and died near Interstate 5 in Kern County.
