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The California Department of Fish and Wildlife, or CDFW, last month completed helicopter capture operations resulting in the satellite collaring of five gray wolves in Northern California.
Operations occurred between Jan. 12 and 20 in Lassen, Modoc, Shasta, Siskiyou and Tehama counties.
The wolves collared were associated with the Whaleback and Harvey packs.
Immediately after capture, each wolf was flown to a nearby field processing site and fitted with a satellite/VHF collar. CDFW veterinary and biological staff also collected standard biological data, including body measurements, DNA and blood samples.
These data allow CDFW to monitor wolf health, screen for disease and assess genetic relatedness among individuals and packs. After collaring, each wolf was released on public land as close as practical to its capture location.
The five wolves collared during the operation included:
• An adult male captured in northern Lassen County that was born into the Whaleback pack. Following release, collar data showed that the wolf returned to its natal Whaleback pack.
• A previously collared, dispersing adult male from the Harvey pack that was captured in Modoc County. Its collar was replaced.
• A Harvey pack female born in 2024 and captured in northwestern Lassen County.
• Two Harvey pack females born in 2025 and captured in northwestern Shasta County.
Wildlife capture operations inherently carry risk to captured animals. During this operation a sixth wolf – an adult female from the Harvey pack – died after capture. Factors contributing to its death are being investigated.
“California’s wolves are still recovering and the state must tread carefully to ensure these fragile packs don’t backslide,” said Amaroq Weiss, a senior wolf advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity. “It’s just so heartbreaking that the Harvey pack was robbed of its matriarch, especially in the middle of wolf breeding season. I know department staff are as heartsick as I am, and that’s why California should stand firm against rancher demands to collar as many wolves as possible.”
The Center for Biological Diversity also raised concerns regarding CDFW’s 2025 end-of-year wolf updates, which showed that possibly only two packs out of California’s nine are known to have a successful breeding pair.
CDFW said satellite collaring is a critical management and research tool that helps CDFW monitor wolf populations, better understand landscape use and movement patterns and reduce the risk of wolf-livestock conflict.
The collars do not provide real-time data; instead, they collect multiple location points per day and generally transmit those stored locations to CDFW once a day. Each collar has an expected battery life of approximately two to three years and is programmed to drop off the animal before the battery is depleted.
Over the past decade, CDFW has successfully captured 38 gray wolves statewide for the purpose of collaring. Presently, there are 13 wolves carrying active collars. Within days of capture, the approximate locations of the newly collared wolves began showing on CDFW’s Wolf Tracker mapping tool.
More information about California’s wolves can be found at CDFW’s gray wolf web pages.