Wolf spotted in Sequoia National Park for first time in a century

The sighting carried a weight that went far beyond a single animal. California’s last known gray wolves were killed in 1922 in eastern San Bernardino County and in 1924 in Lassen County, and no wolves were confirmed again until OR-7 crossed in from Oregon on December 28, 2011. BEY03F’s arrival in Sequoia, roughly a century after wolves disappeared from the state, showed how far the species has dispersed beyond its longtime foothold in northeastern California.

The wolf’s route also traced a striking arc across the state. California Wolf Watch said BEY03F had traveled hundreds of miles in recent months, and she had already made history in February when she became the first known wild wolf in Los Angeles County in more than 100 years. Her movement into Sequoia reflects the broader expansion of a population now estimated at roughly 90 gray wolves across 13 known packs, according to reporting based on wolf-tracking data.

That recovery is colliding with the realities of modern land use. Sequoia National Park, established on September 25, 1890, sits in the southern Sierra Nevada, where the National Park Service says the parklands are the homelands of the Mono (Monache), Yokuts, Tübatulabal, Paiute and Western Shoshone. The return of wolves to that terrain has conservation significance, but it also points toward the next phase of management, where park boundaries, livestock operations and dispersal corridors will increasingly overlap.