A new study from the University of California-Davis estimates that a single wolf can cost cattle ranchers more than $160,000.

“It is clear the scale of conflict between wolves and cattle is substantial, expanding and costly to ranchers in terms of animal welfare, animal performance and ranch profitability,” said Tina Saitone, a UC-Davis cooperative extension specialist in livestock and rangeland economics.

“This is not surprising given that cattle appear to be a major component of wolf diet and the calories drive their conservation success,” she added, in a news release.

Study findings

The research centered on three wolf packs and their interactions with rangeland cattle in northeastern California from June to October of 2022, 2023 and 2024.

Scientists found that one wolf can cause between $69,000 and $162,000 in direct and indirect losses from lower pregnancy rates in cows and decreased weight gain in calves.

Total indirect losses from the three packs were estimated to range from $1.4 million to $3.4 million depending on moderate to severe impacts.

Researchers also tested wolf scat samples, finding that 72% from the 2022 and 2023 summer seasons contained cattle DNA.

Data didn’t indicate what killed the cattle. “It just tells us what’s for dinner,” said Ben Sacks of the UC-Davis Veterinary Genetics Laboratory.

Hair cortisol levels were elevated in cattle that ranged in areas with wolves, indicating increased stress.

Recent return

Wolves were long considered extinct in California.

In 2011, a lone gray wolf was spotted entering the state and a pack was observed in Siskiyou County in 2015.

By the end of 2024, seven wolf packs were documented in California with evidence of the animals in four other locations.

Saitone and her team sought to quantify the direct and indirect costs of wolves after the California Department of Fish and Wildlife launched a pilot program to compensate ranchers for losses.

“There’s not really any research in the state on the economic consequences of an apex predator interacting with livestock,” Saitone said.

New management phase

Gray wolves are protected under state and federal law as an endangered species.

CDFW’s depredation compensation program has paid out $3.1 million since 2022 and the agency said April 2 it was moving into a new phase of wolf management given increasing population numbers.

The next phase entails evaluating the status of gray wolves, evaluating potential permits to allow “less-than-lethal harassment such as such as noise or use of motorized equipment to deter the predators, an online tool to provide location details of wolves with GPS collars, investigating livestock losses due to depredation and other actions.

“We do need to get toward some kind of coexistence,” said Ken Tate, a UC-Davis professor and rangeland watershed science specialist in cooperative extension.

“We don’t know what that’s going to look like but it doesn’t look like what we’re doing now. It’s not sustainable. This research helps, I think, to advance that conversation,” Tate added, in the news release.