Gray wolf crosses into Nevada after breaking from California pack

Alan Halaly, Las Vegas Review-Journal on Feb 3, 2026

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A spotted gray wolf has left his California pack and trotted across Silver State lines, wildlife biologists say.

Nevada Department of Wildlife spokeswoman Ashley Zeme said the wolf is in the north end of the Carson Range near Carson City. The wolf crossed into Nevada on Monday after heading east from Truckee, California, on the north end of Lake Tahoe, she said.

“Historically, wolves detected in Nevada have been dispersing individuals from neighboring states,” Zeme said in an email. “These animals typically move through remote areas of the state briefly before moving out of the state.”

So-called “dispersal wolves” are typically young males that leave the pack in search of new territory and a mate.

Gray wolves earned a spot on the federal endangered species list in 1974, when only about 600 of them still roamed the lower 48 states. Before 2017, nobody had seen a gray wolf in Nevada since 1922.

In 2024, the Nevada wildlife department thought it had seen three gray wolves in Elko County, but further DNA testing proved they were coyotes.

This new development comes after the Trump administration’s U.S. Fish and Wildlife Department in November walked back the Biden administration’s promise to develop a nationwide gray wolf recovery plan. The nonprofit Center for Biological Diversity filed a notice of intent to sue the agency over the matter in December.

Wolves had disappeared from California in the 1920s, too, but today the California Department of Fish and Wildlife tracks 10 named wolf packs. The wolf on his Nevada detour is part of the Harvey pack, which biologists say typically inhabits western Lassen County and eastern Shasta County, and has produced wolf pups since 2023.

Though Nevada wildlife officials say Nevada isn’t known to be historic wolf habitat, the Center for Biological Diversity estimates that there could have been upward of 2 million of them when European settlers arrived in North America.

The California wildlife department has a public GPS tracker for gray wolves within state lines, though the Nevada visitor’s live location won’t be restored until he crosses back into California. Zeme said both states are working together to provide location updates as they become necessary.

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