First state-authorized killings mark escalation in California’s management of wolves

This is the third part of Mongabay’s series on the expanding wolf population in California. Read the first and the second parts. In late October, wildlife authorities in the U.S. state of California announced they captured and euthanized three adult gray wolves and shot a juvenile dead, all from the Beyem Seyo pack in the Sierra Valley. Wardens killed them, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) said, because the wolves (Canis lupus) had become “habituated to preying on cattle” rather than hunting elk, deer and other wild prey. The wolves killed were a breeding pair, an adult female, and a juvenile male “mistaken” for the adult male. Officers also found the remains of two other juveniles from the same pack that were severely decomposed. The cause of death remains unknown, an