For the first time in 16 years, Washington state’s overall gray wolf population decreased from the year before, based on information gathered by the state’s Department of Fish and Wildlife and its tribal partners, including the Spokane Tribe of Indians, the Swinomish Tribe, the Yakama Nation and the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation.
However, recovery goals were met in multiple regions, and the presence of wolf packs increased slightly.
WDFW has released a report on gray wolf conservation efforts every year since 2008. According to the 2024 report, released on April 5, the gray wolf population has increased an average of 20% annually since they started tracking.
But dropping nearly 10% from last year, is there any concern over the population?
Gray wolves in Washington
Washington state’s wolf population was “virtually eliminated” by the 1930s, according to the WDFW report.
Gray wolves first received federal protection through the Endangered Species Act by 1974 – though this status has changed several times since, and currently applies only in part of the state. Washington state endangered species protection was gained in 1980. Paired with conservation efforts across multiple agencies and tribes, the population has been on a gradual increase.
To measure the management and conservation efforts of gray wolves, WDFW monitors wolf activity throughout the year for the annual report. The end-of-year survey totals reflect the minimum wolf count, plus 12.5% to account for wolves that are difficult to track.
Efforts are broken up across three recovery regions throughout the state: the Northern Cascades Region, the Eastern Washington Region, and the Southern Cascades and Northwest Coast Region.
Washington wolf conservation and management
The report for 2024 included a final count of 230 wolves across 43 packs. In 2023, there were 254 wolves across 42 packs.
According to the WDFW, the size of a pack varied from two to 13, with the average pack somewhere between three and six wolves.
However, two of the three regions exceeded their recovery objectives. To maintain the wolf population, the goal for each region is at least four successful breeding pairs for three years in a row.
A “breeding pair” refers to at least one adult male and one adult female wolf who raised a minimum of two pups through the end of the year, according to the report. The presence of breeding pairs reflects “reproductive success and recruitment.”
The Eastern Recovery Region had 13 successful breeding pairs, and the North Cascades Recovery Region had five.
Because two recovery regions surpassed their objectives, WDFW doesn’t see the slight decrease in population as a major concern when it comes to long-term wolf population numbers.
“Despite reduced population counts statewide, the number of packs increased in the North Cascades in 2024, and both the North Cascades and Eastern Washington Recovery regions continued to meet or exceed recovery objectives for the fifth year in a row,” WDFW Statewide Wolf Specialist Ben Maletzke stated in a press release.
However, a non-profit organization thinks the decrease is a signal of greater issues.
Non-profit concerned about WA wolf population
The Center for Biological Diversity, a non-profit focused on advocating for and protecting endangered species, disagrees with the WDFW’s assessment of wolf numbers in Washington. Senior Wolf Advocate Amaroq Weiss told McClatchy that breeding pairs represent the trajectory of the wolf population.
“If few of them are doing that [meeting the requirements for an official breeding pair], that’s telling you your wolf population is in trouble,” Weiss said. “And if you were kind of going along okay for a while, and all of a sudden it plummeted by 25%, you have a problem.”
As for WDFW’s assessment of an average of 20% growth every year since the survey began, Weiss says the figure “waters things down.”
“Because in the very, very early years of a wolf population re-establishing in a state, you’re going to get huge percentage increases from one year to the next. You go from one pack to two packs, that’s a 100% increase,” Weiss said.
But in an email to McClatchy, WDFW Communications Manager Staci Lehman said “the overall trajectory of the population over time is more telling than looking at a single year.”
With the progress that has been made among the wolf population, it’s natural there will be some fluctuation when a population nears carrying capacity, which the Eastern Recovery Region is approaching, according to Lehman.
“That means, a single time reduction in the population count is biologically reasonable, and is not a significant concern of Washington’s wolves,” Lehman stated.
Plus, the total pack number increased, and within these packs were multiple breeding pairs that couldn’t quite yet be determined “successful” under the recovery definitions. WDFW expects successful breeding pairs to grow from these packs in the future.
Gray wolves in the Southern Cascades
Weiss also noted concern regarding the lack of wolves in the third region, the Southern Cascades and Northwest Coast recovery region. She suggested the population is small in that region because the few wolves that get there are killed illegally, and that they’re rarely making it there in the first place because too many wolves are killed in other areas.
Lehman clarified that there are numerous reasons the population is struggling to resurge in the third region. There are multiple barriers, including natural ones like the Columbia River, and man-made ones like fencing along I-90. Combined with the fact that the region is farthest from established wolf populations, it’s a difficult journey for wolves to make, so many don’t.
That said, Weiss is correct regarding the role of killings in the Southern Cascades and Northwest Coast recovery region. Four of the three wolves who made it into the region in recent years were killed illegally, according to WDFW.
“When collared wolves have successfully dispersed into this recovery region, some have been killed unlawfully,” Lehman stated. “While this only accounts for collared individuals, it suggests that poaching may play a role in the slower than expected recovery in Southern Cascades and Northwest Coast Recovery Region.”
Washington wolf deaths in 2024
In total, there were 37 documented wolf mortalities in 2024, including seven attributed to unlawful killing or poaching.
“Poaching wolves is unacceptable - in Washington, illegally killing a wolf or other endangered species is a gross misdemeanor, punishable by up to a $5,000 fine and one year in jail,” WDFW Director Kelly Susewind stated in the press release for this year’s report. “In addition, poaching slows the natural recovery of wolves in the state and hinders their ability to reach recovery goals that could allow them to be delisted as a state-endangered species.”
Weiss noted the increase in killings as a reason for the Center for Biological Diversity’s concern over the state’s gray wolf population. Human-caused killings have been a leading cause of death for wolves in Washington.
While the number of mortalities has been on the rise, that can be expected with a growing population. Since 2011, an average of 10.8% of the wolf population has died each year.
The lowest percentage of deaths was in 2011, when one wolf died and 27 survived through the year, a 3.57% death rate. The following year recorded the highest percentage of deaths, with nine deaths and 51 wolves surviving through the year, a 15% death rate. These numbers include legal and accidental killings.
The last four years have all recorded a death rate over 10%, including 13.86% in 2024. This rate will often go up and down from year to year. Washington’s gray wolf death rate has not hit 15% since 2012.
Help WA’s gray wolves thrive
WDFW has taken multiple measures to decrease the number of gray wolf deaths in the state, including new approaches for wolf and livestock conflicts, an emphasis on cracking down on poaching, and collaborating with tribes on shared goals.
Weiss cited research claiming that increased legal killings can lead to increased illegal killings, and it alters the way the public feels about gray wolves. WDFW has stated that public acceptance is essential for statewide wolf recovery, and is actively working to improve the public perception.
“There are some challenges for learning to live with wolves again, there are some challenges to the wolves themselves… but it is an amazing conservation opportunity, and wolves and many, many other species are under severe threat around the globe, and in this country, and under this administration,” Weiss said. “So we have a really amazing opportunity here to make things work for us and for wolves, because no matter what we think of them, they have their own intrinsic value.”
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