For the first time last week, staff at the California Wolf Center separated two of its most popular Mexican gray wolves: the tan, black and rust-coated brothers Thor and Durango.
That’s because eight-year-old Durango was about to meet a potential mate. She’s a female wolf from New Mexico.
“After being medically cleared, over the next few months, she and Durango will spend time getting to know each other and, fingers crossed, become a bonded pair,” said Christine Barton, the Wolf Center’s executive director.
Staff won’t know for sure if the pair will hit it off until next spring, she said, adding that the goal will be to get their pups “out into a wild den to start their life raised alongside their foster siblings somewhere in Arizona or New Mexico.”
The organization’s Mexican gray wolf breeding program and federal protections under the Endangered Species Act have helped the population return from the brink of extinction by humans by the 1970s, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Today, about 317 roam the southwestern U.S.
“Without humans breeding those wolves to create diverse individuals, the lack of genetic diversity will be the greatest threat to that subspecies of gray wolf,” said Jacob Keeton, the Wolf Center’s director of Education and Engagement.
Mexican gray wolves aren’t natural predators in San Diego County, the most biologically diverse county in the continental United States. But the nonprofit organization’s work is central to nationwide conservation efforts. The Center has spearheaded efforts to recover the Mexican gray wolf population for decades, first joining the Mexican Wolf Species Survival Plan in 1997. Now known as the AZA SAFE Mexican Wolf program, the binational program grew from having only seven unrelated wolves to nearly 700. The center also established the Mexican Wolf Fund, which works with ranchers and landowners in the Southwest to reduce conflicts between wolves and livestock.
“The only path forward is, really, coexistence,” Keeton said.
The Wolf Center is now working to expand its care for wolves nearly 50 years after it started operations. But their plan to continue helping recovery gains comes as the species faces uncertain federal protections.
Some ranchers, farmers and sportsmen have raised concerns that population growth has led to more attacks on their livestock and hunting dogs. Earlier this month, President Donald Trump responded with an executive order directing the Department of the Interior to examine removing gray wolves and Mexican wolves from the Endangered Species Act.
“We are glad to see the Administration taking up this issue that has impacted sportsmen for so long,” Michael Jean, a lawyer representing the Sportsmen’s Alliance Foundation, said in a statement. “We look forward to participating in the administrative rulemaking process and helping our members who have lost too many dogs to wolves.”
Depredation data is collected independently by state wildlife agencies. States like California, Colorado and Oregon have recorded a rise in gray wolf attacks on livestock. Wildlife officials in California confirmed 198 livestock losses last year, a jump from 74 suspected depredations in 2024. So far this year, 45 are confirmed.
Wild wolves wandered into Northern California from neighboring states in search of mates and resources.
Wolves don't recognize state boundaries, said Keeton, adding that protections for gray wolves in California remain firmly in place. But that’s not enough.
“Having different policies that do stop and start at different state boundaries, it's not ideal, right,” he said. “The best thing for wolves is to have, you know, blanket federal protections that kind of go from state to state and allow for their recovery.”
The federal government has 90 days, or through early December, to decide if gray wolves and Mexican wolves have recovered enough to lose their Endangered Species Act protections.
No matter what the government decides, Keeton said the Wolf Center is strengthening its work to foster coexistence between people and native predators with an expansion project.
The organization bought land along Highway 79, less than a mile from its conservation site. Other than a large barn at the entrance, the 28-acre site is undeveloped, which is ideal for what the Wolf Center is planning, said Matt Anderson, who leads the center’s resource development.
“(It’s) full of mature oaks and lots of exciting native plants,” he said. “Wild turkeys and deer are here already. Wolves are going to be here soon.”
The idea is to give wolves more space to roam and show the impact their natural role has on ecosystems.
“We're really focusing on that coexistence and what that means, with the wolves playing a major role as a California native predator, within a food chain situation, where they control herbivorous species and, in turn, have a control over the biodiversity of plants and trees,” said Anderson.
According to the organization, plans include turning the barn into a visitor and education hub, building medical facilities for the wolves, and designating some areas for the public to get a closer look. The site will also have a network of cameras for remote monitoring.
“The idea there would be: we don't want too much human contact. So, the behaviors remain naturalistic for, you know, the future of reintroduction,” said Anderson. “That data that's accrued will be useful from everything from people who study climate change, biodiversity, all the way through to individual research projects.”
In the future, he added, the organization would add other native predators to show why protecting them means protecting entire ecosystems.
“Rabbits, rodents, etc., who then, in turn, would generally be eating the habitat that we see out here,” said Anderson. “The California native predators, wolves, Mountain lions, coyotes, etc., effectively control those populations so they don't eat us out of the house and home in terms of the habitat. So the biodiversity we see here is an intrinsic part of the ecosystem.”
The nonprofit is raising $3 million to complete the project.
