Return to the Wild
What was started in the 1970s by one family with two wolves has grown into the California Wolf Center, dedicated to the breeding and return of wild wolves to their natural habitat. The Center works to bring communities together to ensure wolves, livestock and people thrive in today’s world.
The Mexican Gray Wolf, which is federally protected, has a natural range stretching from Southern Utah and Colorado all the way down to Mexico City. The numbers have been reduced by hunting and habitat encroachment, with only 115 wolves remaining in the wild in the United States, and another 35 in Mexico. The California Wolf Center currently has 22 Mexican Gray wolves and is actively breeding and returning them to the wild, helping to slowly return these animals from the brink of extinction.
Not only is the Center successful in returning animals to the wild, they participate in the Mexican Wolf Species Survival Plan, working with ranching communities and sharing their efforts through education programs reducing the potential for wolf-livestock conflict.
California Wolf Center hosts educational tours at their conservation center in Julian, where guests can view resident wolves and witness their magnificence and beauty up close. While you can see the wolves, it is a breeding facility that prides itself on keeping the animals in an untamed and “wild” state- ready to be released to the wild.
Want to join the pack? The California Wolf Center does an amazing job in keeping this noble breed on a road to recovery, but they could not do it without your help. You can make a donation or even sponsor a pup! If you would like to find out more, you can join them at their annual fundraising gala to benefit wolf conservation efforts held on October 6 at Lomas Santa Fe Country Club.
