Late Saturday morning, news spread quickly among residents of the Los Angeles area who get excited about such things — and as a native Angeleno, I’m one of those people. A gray wolf had crossed into Los Angeles County for the first time in more than a century, confirmed by state wildlife officials and captured on video. For a city that still speaks about P-22 with emotion, the moment landed as both thrilling and surreal. (Hey, even the wildlife are celebs around these parts.)
The wolf, a 3-year-old female known as BEY03F, entered the mountains north of Santa Clarita around 6 AM, according to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, as reported by the Los Angeles times. She is wearing a GPS collar, allowing biologists to track her movements in near real time — including her remarkable journey south into the San Gabriel Mountains.
Just four hours earlier, she had been moving through Kern County desert. A week before that, she was hundreds of miles away.
Check out the video shared on Facebook by a CBS affiliate in Southern California:
BEY03F was born in 2023 in Plumas County’s Beyem Seyo Pack and later spent time with the Yowlumni Pack in Tulare County, where she was fitted with the collar last May. Since dispersing from that area, she has traveled more than 370 miles, walking much of the length of the Sierra Nevada in what wildlife experts describe as a search for a mate and suitable habitat.
“Her journey isn’t over,” Axel Hunnicutt, California’s gray wolf coordinator, told the Los Angeles Times. The fact that she is still moving, he said, suggests she has not yet found a partner or a place to settle.
That movement comes with risk. In the days before reaching Los Angeles County, BEY03F crossed State Route 59 near Tehachapi three separate times. Vehicle strikes are the leading known cause of wolf deaths in California, a sobering reality as the species returns to a state crisscrossed by highways.
Still, conservationists are calling her arrival historic. Wolves were wiped out in California by hunters and trappers in the early 20th century, with the last documented wild wolf killed in 1924. Their modern return began in 2011, when a lone wolf crossed into the state from Oregon. Today, officials estimate that at least several dozen wolves roam California — though nearly all are concentrated far north of Los Angeles.
That’s why BEY03F’s appearance is such a big deal. There are no known wolves currently living in the San Gabriel or Tehachapi Mountains, but biologists say it’s possible a male could be nearby. If she finds one, a new Southern California pack could form. If not, she may continue wandering — potentially hundreds of miles more.
For many Angelenos, the moment inevitably recalls P-22, the mountain lion who famously lived near Griffith Park and became a symbol of urban wildlife resilience. Like P-22, BEY03F is an apex predator navigating fragmented habitats and human infrastructure, reminding the region that wildness still exists at the edges of the metropolis.
Her presence definitely doesn’t guarantee a permanent return of wolves to Los Angeles County. But it does confirm that after more than a century, a wolf has found her way back — and the city is watching.