Gray wolves reestablished in northeastern California aren’t just testing coexistence — they’re reshaping it. For years, ranchers in Northeastern California have told anyone who would listen that gray wolves were killing their cattle at a rate far higher than official numbers suggested. Now there’s DNA to back it up.
A two-year University of California, Davis study set out to answer the simple question: What are wolves actually eating?
The answer, delivered through genetic analysis rather than guesswork, confirms what producers on the ground have said all along — cattle are not an occasional target. They’re a staple.
The graphic below, created by Ore-Cal RC&D, summarizes the study:
Why Scat, Not Carcasses
Tina Saitone, professor of Cooperative Extension in UC Davis’ Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, says the project grew out of a documentation problem. Gray wolves are listed as endangered at both the federal and state level, which severely limits what ranchers can legally do to protect livestock. Making matters worse, the terrain where wolves operate in California is often too rugged and remote to locate depredated animals in time for the required official investigation — meaning many kills likely go uncounted.
So Saitone’s team took a different approach, one already used in Europe and parts of the American West — analyzing wolf scat. Researchers at UC Davis’ Veterinary Genetics Laboratory used DNA genotyping to confirm the scat source, then DNA metabarcoding to identify everything the animal had actually consumed — not just the visible hair and bone fragments a traditional scat analysis would catch.
The team studied two packs — Lassen and Harvey — across 2022 and 2023. At 72%, cattle appeared as the most frequently occurring food item during both summers of the study — present in 86% of samples in 2022 and 55% in 2023. While all 2022 samples were from the Lassen Pack, the 2023 samples included eight from the newly established Harvey Pack.
“It wasn’t surprising,” Saitone says, noting that California already has the highest confirmed and probable wolf depredation rate of any state with an active wolf population. “It is maybe a little bit surprising just how high of a percentage it was.”
Why Cattle
Researchers found mule deer in just 45% of the scat samples, significantly less common than cattle. Several forces are pushing wolves toward livestock, Saitone explains. Mule deer populations have been declining since the 1960s due to vehicle strikes, habitat loss from wildfire, land fragmentation and pressure from multiple predator species — not just wolves, but bears and mountain lions too. Deer have responded partly by moving closer to towns and people, putting distance between themselves and predator habitat.
That leaves wolves with fewer natural options — and less reason to avoid cattle. Compounding the problem, California’s strict protections have meant wolves face virtually no negative reinforcement around livestock or people. Ranchers could not legally haze wolves — not even firing a gun into the air — until very recently. Packs have also been teaching pups what counts as prey for nearly a decade, and cattle have become an easy, high-calorie, low-risk answer.
A Shifting Management Landscape
California recently moved into “Phase 2" of its wolf management plan, which technically allows less-lethal hazing tools such as rubber bullets, beanbag rounds and tear gas. In practice, Saitone explains, only two county sheriff’s departments have signed agreements to use those tools and rural departments are stretched too thin to respond in the moment an attack is happening.
Compensation has followed a similarly uneven path. California’s pilot program launched in 2021 with $3 million to cover direct losses, non-lethal deterrence costs, and “pay for presence” — compensation for indirect impacts like lighter calves and lower conception rates tied to predator stress. She says money ran out within three years, and follow-up funding fell well short of demand, prompting the state to scale compensation back to direct, confirmed kills only.
A pending bill, the California Wildlife Coexistence Act, would direct a significant funding increase toward compensation and deterrence — but Saitone cautions many of the mandated tools, like turbo-fladry fencing, work on small pastures and aren’t practical across the thousand-acre-plus allotments common in wolf country.
What’s Missing From the Wolf Conversation
California may talk about “coexistence” with wolves, but on the ground, ranchers are living something closer to forced cohabitation, Saitone explains.
She says ranchers describe wolves as the most significant threat to their livelihood they’ve faced in their lifetimes. She also points to an angle she believes gets lost in mainstream coverage: the animal welfare cost to cattle themselves. Calves attacked by wolves rarely survive the injuries, and cows have been observed searching for a lost calf for weeks after a depredation. A cow that loses her calf often ends up culled, since a rancher can’t continue carrying an open cow.
A second UC Davis study, published in Ecology and Evolution, measured cortisol levels in tail hair samples collected from beef cattle grazing rangelands in northeastern California — some herds sharing territory with wolf packs, others in areas without wolves. Cortisol, often called the stress hormone, accumulates in hair over time, making it a reliable indicator of chronic stress rather than a momentary response to fright.
Cattle herds living among wolves had cortisol levels 58% higher than those in control herds — a significant physiological difference. This marks one of the first times hair cortisol analysis has been used to study how the reintroduction of predators reshapes livestock physiology in the field.
“We’ve introduced an apex predator that’s going to essentially eat it alive,” Saitone says, arguing euthanizing a problem wolf is arguably more humane than what depredated cattle experience.
She shares three recommendations moving forward:
- Active Management: Moving toward more flexible management that allows ranchers to protect their herds more aggressively.
- Effective Deterrence: Providing ranchers with tools that actually work on a large scale.
- Restoring Natural Balance: Rebuilding native deer and elk populations so that wolves have a viable alternative to livestock.
“I don’t think there’s ever a true fix,” Saitone summarizes. “But there are things that would move us closer to true coexistence, rather than the forced cohabitation we’re in right now.”
CDFW and Partners Collaborate to Reduce Wolf-Livestock Conflict and Benefit Ranchers
On July 1, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) announced it would utilize $2 million provided by the California Legislature for its Wolf-Livestock Compensation Program. CDFW awarded funds to four organizations to support efforts to reduce wolf-livestock conflict.
According to the press release, “With gray wolves naturally returning to California over the last 15 years, ranchers in several regions are encountering new challenges and these funds help strengthen the on-the-ground efforts to protect livestock while supporting the recovery of the species.”
The funds were awarded to four organizations:
- The California Bountiful Foundation – supported by the California Farm Bureau – will collaborate closely with CDFW to reimburse livestock producers who suffer confirmed or probable wolf attacks on livestock. The foundation will also provide additional support, such as education, outreach, and equipment, to livestock producers in counties affected by wolves.
- The Sierra Valley Resource Conservation District will support livestock producers utilizing approved hazing techniques on gray wolves. Efforts will include providing outreach, training and equipment that will help producers detect wolf presence. It will also study the use of electronic cattle ear tags that can potentially alert livestock producers to wolf conflict by sensing and reporting abnormal cattle movement or behaviors.
- The Honey Lake Valley Resource Conservation District will deliver educational and technical assistance programs to help eligible livestock producers implement hazing and deterrence strategies. It may also provide producers with approved hazing equipment.
- Working Circle will provide outreach to livestock producers geared toward reducing cattle vulnerability to wolf depredation through herd management and stockmanship. Working Circle will conduct workshops and work directly with interested producers to assess and reduce depredation risks on specific properties.
“CDFW deeply values its partners and looks forward to continued collaboration with these organizations to help reduce wolf-livestock conflicts, support California’s livestock producers and manage the recovery of wolves in California,” says CDFW Director Meghan Hertel. “We have heard clearly from ranchers how hard the return of wolves has been on their livelihoods – not just financially, but in the day-to-day mental and physical toll of managing this animal. These programs are meant to offer support and more tools to the people most affected by the return of gray wolves to the state.”
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