Capturing and collaring mule deer, tule, and Rocky Mountain elk improves California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s understanding of species distribution, habitat use, abundance, migration patterns, recruitment rates and survival.  Photo courtesy of California Department of Fish and Wildlife

NORTHERN REGION, CA (MPG) - The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) is initiating efforts in northern California to capture deer, elk and wolves by helicopter and outfit the animals with GPS collars. 

Helicopter captures for deer and elk will be conducted in portions of Alameda, Colusa, Humboldt, Lake, Lassen, Modoc, Plumas, Santa Clara, Sierra, Siskiyou and Tehama counties throughout the month of January 2026. 

Capturing and collaring mule deer, tule, and Rocky Mountain elk improves California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s understanding of species distribution, habitat use, abundance, migration patterns, recruitment rates and survival.  

Capture teams will be targeting wolves in Siskiyou, Lassen and Tehama counties and potentially other uncollared packs or wolf groups in Modoc, Shasta and Plumas counties. Any captured wolves will be returned to the nearest suitable public land habitat after processing. 

Deployed collars will transmit data to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife scientists daily for up to three years and provide detailed information about animal movements, habitat preferences and locations. For collared wolves specifically, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife will share animal location information with cattle and sheep producers with the goal of reducing negative interactions with the understanding GPS tracking collars do not transmit data in real-time. Wolf movement and location data will automatically feed into  California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s online Wolf Tracker mapping tool.

Wildlife capture operations will take place on land managed by California Department of Fish and Wildlife, the United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service (USDA), the Bureau of Land Management as well as on private properties with permission from landowners. California Department of Fish and Wildlife is grateful to the USDA Forest Service, BLM, timberland owners and other private parties for providing access to their lands for these wildlife capture efforts.