Washington Gray Wolf Conservation and Management 2025 Annual Report

Overview

Each year, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) submits a report to the federal government for Endangered Species Act (ESA) Section 6 activities. This document details the results of the annual gray wolf (Canis lupus) population survey and summarizes wolf recovery and management activities from the previous year.

Washington’s wolf population was virtually eliminated in the 1930s but has rebounded in response to federal and state protections and conservation efforts.
The first resident wolf pack was documented in Okanogan County in 2008. Since then, the wolf population has increased to a minimum of 270 wolves and 49 packs in 2025. At the end of the calendar year, pack territories encompassed a diverse mixture of public, private, and tribal lands throughout the Eastern Washington and North Cascades Recovery Regions. Individual wolves dispersed into the South Cascades and Northwest Coast Recovery Region, but none were detected during winter surveys. There were no known wolves or packs in this recovery region by the end of 2025.

Gray wolves’ legal status

Gray wolves in Washington received legal protection under the ESA in 1974. Wolves in the eastern third of the state were delisted as part of the Northern Rocky Mountain Distinct Population Segment (NRM - DPS) in 2011. In January 2020, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) published a final rule to delist gray wolves, where they are currently listed across the lower-48 United States due to recovery. Gray wolves in the entirety of Washington were managed under state authority until February 2022, when a court ruling vacated the 2020 final delisting rule, which reinstated ESA protections for wolves outside the NRM - DPS. The vacatur decision is currently being appealed. Gray wolves in the western two-thirds of Washington State remain classified as endangered under the ESA, where the USFWS has resumed the lead role for recovery actions in the corresponding federally listed area.

Under Washington state law, wolves were listed as endangered in 1980. Legal protections under state law currently apply to the entirety of the state. Washington’s wolf recovery activities are guided by the Wolf Conservation and Management Plan, adopted in 2011 by the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission (FWC). Under the plan, Washington state is divided into three recovery regions: Eastern Washington, the Northern Cascades, and the Southern Cascades and Northwest Coast. In addition, a WDFW-approved Wolf-Livestock Interaction Protocol (PDF) sets forth criteria for WDFW to collaborate with livestock producers to minimize conflicts with wolves. 

Wolves that inhabit tribal lands in the Eastern Washington recovery region are managed by those specific tribal entities.

Wolf recovery and management in 2025

Key developments in 2025 included:

• After a decline in 2024, Washington’s minimum year-end wolf count increased by 17.4% to its highest count to date. As of Dec. 31, 2025, WDFW and Tribes counted 270 wolves and 49 packs across the state. Twenty-three of these packs were confirmed to be successful breeding pairs. These numbers are comparable with the previous year’s count of 230 wolves, 43 packs, and 18 breeding pairs. As in past years, survey results represent the minimum count of wolves in known packs plus an additional 12.5% to account for lone wolves and dispersers not associated with a pack at the time of survey.
• Pack sizes ranged from two to twelve wolves with an average pack size of 4.9 wolves at the end of the calendar year. Most packs contained three to seven individuals.
• Since the first WDFW survey in 2008, the state’s wolf population has grown by an average of 21.5% per year despite the decline recorded in 2024.
• State, federal, and tribal biologists captured 26 wolves from 13 different packs and monitored a total of 50 unique radio-collared wolves from 24 different packs in 2025.
• Six packs formed or reestablished in 2025. Packs that re-established included the Salmo, Smackout, and Vulcan packs in Northeast Washington. The Cameron Lake pack formed on the Colville Reservation, and the Billy Goat and Tupshin packs formed in the North Cascades Recovery Region.
• No packs or breeding pairs were documented in the Southern Cascades and Northwest Coast Recovery Region at the end of 2025 despite GPS collar data showing a dispersal event and confirmed sightings indicating that at least one wolf traveled to the area.
• Fourteen collared wolves dispersed from their pack territories in 2025. This represents 28% of the collared wolves monitored during the calendar year. Three collared wolves (6%) dispersed out of Washington state to Oregon, Idaho and British Columbia, Canada.
• WDFW documented 28 wolf mortalities during 2025 (Table 1), including four wolves removed by WDFW in response to wolf-livestock conflict, two killed while caught in the act of depredating livestock, two natural mortalities, one unknown cause of death, one associated with a WDFW capture operation, 12 legally harvested by CTCR tribal hunters, three human caused mortalities of CTCR monitored wolves, and three mortalities from unlawful take.
• WDFW documented 17 depredation events involving 19 cattle in 2025. Eight calves were confirmed killed by wolves while one was probably killed by wolves. Eight calves were confirmed injured by wolves, and two calves were probably injured by wolves.
• Five of the 49 (10%) confirmed packs that existed in Washington during 2025 were involved in at least one confirmed or probable livestock injury or mortality. Two of those packs were involved in 2 or less depredations. Ninety percent of known packs were not involved in any known livestock depredations in 2025 (including probable depredations) despite most pack territories overlapping private lands and various livestock operations.
• During calendar year 2025, WDFW spent a total of $1,996,492 on wolf management activities. This included $102,340 for Damage Prevention Cooperative Agreements – Livestock (DPCA-L) and non-lethal conflict prevention expenses (range riding, specialized lighting and fencing, etc.), $146,004 for WDFW contracted range riders, $90,419 for claims for livestock losses caused by wolves, $92,410 for lethal removal operations in response to depredations on livestock, and $1,565,319 for wolf management and research activities.