The first gray wolf to visit Los Angeles County in 100 years sparked a worldwide media frenzy last week. But within two days of arrival, the three-year-old female turned tail and fled, perhaps spooked by heavy traffic, humans, and noise.
Born in 2023, the wolf left her Northern California birth pack last year in search of a mate and suitable habitat. According to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife—which named the animal BEY03F after collaring her last May in Tulare County, near the Yowlumni wolf pack—she has traveled more than 500 miles. At the time of this reporting, she is currently roaming the Sequoia National Forest, northeast of Bakersfield.
The brief but historic appearance in Los Angeles County (in the mountains north of Santa Clarita) has fueled concerns about wolves’ long-term survival in an increasingly urban landscape. Just as with mountain lions, vehicles are the biggest cause of wolf deaths in California. Five wolves have been killed on roads since 2021. According to one study, coyotes have learned to look both ways before crossing busy streets. But wolves avoid humans, prefer wilderness, and have never evolved skills to survive alongside people.
Still, the biological imperative to mate is strong, and wolves continue to make long journeys—often 50 miles a day, sometimes through populated areas—in search of companions. Usually males and females “disperse” (or leave their birth families) at around one and a half to three years of age, upon reaching sexual maturity. They mate once a year, right around Valentine’s Day.
BEY03F is right on schedule, though she would have had better luck if she’d headed north into Oregon when she dispersed. The state has more than 200 wolves, according to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. But she kept moving south, crossing highways, mountain ranges, and deserts as biologists watched with growing excitement as the young wolf moved into regions where wolves have been extinct for a century.
Public opinion on free-roaming wolves is polarized. Biologists argue that wolves target deer and elk, especially members of the herd that are old, sick, very young, or crippled. Culling actually makes the wild herds stronger by eliminating weak members.
But the state ranching industry says more should be done to manage wolves. In 2025, wolves killed nearly 200 livestock animals in California, according to the Department of Fish and Wildlife. BEY03F’s pack, the Beyem Seyo, caused 90 of those deaths, resulting in four wolves being euthanized. Shortly after, the Kern County Board of Supervisors adopted a resolution asking California Fish and Wildlife to take “all available measures” to keep wolves out of the county, saying the animals are incompatible with and harm the area’s livestock industries. (The state already compensates ranchers for cattle killed by gray wolves. Last year, the California Cattlemen’s Association secured $2 million in state funds to be paid to ranchers harmed by gray wolves in 2026.)
Environmentalists underscore the need for more wildlife corridors to provide animals with safe passage from one wilderness area to another. A study funded by two conservation groups is currently looking at ways to improve wildlife-crossing infrastructure and opportunities along a 26-mile stretch of I-5 between the Castaic area and Highway 138 by linking up the Los Padres National Forest with the Angeles National Forest—the very route that BEY03F traversed last week. There are currently no dedicated crossings across I-5.
Amaroq Weiss, a biologist and senior wolf advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity, says the California Department of Fish and Wildlife doesn’t like to relocate wild animals, since they can develop capture myopathy, an often-fatal condition in which the creature dies of extreme stress. Earlier this year, two wolves died during routine collaring efforts.
Weiss and wolf fans track the young female wolf using Fish and Wildlife’s wolf-locator map, which shows a time-delay map of a five-square-mile area where BEY03F’s collar last pinged. “It’s hopeful to me that she’s away from major roads,” says Weiss. “If the humans will just leave her alone.”•
Denise Hamilton is a Los Angeles native, crime novelist, and former reporter for the Los Angeles Times. She’s the editor of Los Angeles Noir and Los Angeles Noir 2: The Classics and was a finalist for the Edgar Award. Read more about her at denisehamilton.com.
