Wolves (Canis lupus) are keystone species, integral to maintaining ecosystem balance by regulating prey populations and promoting biodiversity (Ripple and Beschta 2004; Ripple et al. 2014). Across China, wolves historically occupied diverse habitats, from the grasslands in the northeast to the forested regions in the southwest (Smith and Xie 2008; Wang et al. 2016). However, habitat fragmentation, retaliatory poisoning, and direct persecution have caused their range to contract significantly over the past century (Treves et al. 2016; Boitani et al. 2018).

In southwestern China, wolf populations in Tibet and Sichuan Province have remained consistent over time (Boitani et al. 2018), whereas only sporadic evidence of their persistence has been documented in Yunnan Province (Xu et al. 2018). Questionnaire surveys with local herders indicated that wolves were commonly appear in northwestern Yunnan before the 1990s. However, due to frequent livestock predation, they were perceived as pests and were subsequently hunted or poisoned, leading to a significant population decline. Today, wolves are rarely observed in the region. Shangri-La National Park, located in the Three Parallel Rivers region, is a biodiversity hotspot characterized by high-altitude forests, meadows, and wetlands. This park is adjacent to the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, a region known for its stable wolf populations (Boitani et al. 2018), making it a potential refuge for dispersed individuals.

Since April 2020, 149 infrared camera traps have been deployed across a 96 km² area of Shangri-La National Park, continuously monitoring medium and large mammals. Between February 2022 and April 2024, four independent instances of wolf activity were recorded. The captured images and video footage revealed a canid with gray-black back, a head-body length exceeding 0.8 meters, and distinctive behaviors characteristic of wolves, such as a drooping tail while walking and a slightly lifted tail while running (Figure 1). The four detected locations exhibited altitudes ranging from 3670 to 3870 m (Figure 2), with the vegetation type characterized as subalpine coniferous forest dominated by Abies georgei. The annual mean temperature in this area is 5.9°C, and the annual rainfall is 633.6 mm (Zhang et al. 2018).

These observations provide the first direct evidence of the presence of wolves in Shangri-La National Park in decades and complement earlier photographic records from Yunlong Tianchi National Nature Reserve, where Xu et al. (2018) documented wolves at the southern edge of the Three Parallel Rivers region. Furthermore, these findings expand the documented southern range of wolves in China, suggesting that the high-altitude habitats in northwest Yunnan are critical for supporting wolf populations.

The continuous detection of wolves in Shangri-La raises important questions about their population connectivity and dispersal. Genetic evidence indicates significant divergence among Chinese wolf populations (Larson and Fuller 2014), with the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau harboring a distinct lineage of Himalayan wolves (Canis lupus ssp. chanco) (Werhahn et al. 2018). The wolves observed in Shangri-La may represent a southern extension of this plateau population, which employ ecological corridors to traverse fragmented habitats (Ripple et al. 2014). Future genetic analyses could help to clarify these connections and guide conservation strategies.

Author Contributions

Yun Deng conceived, designed and directed the experiments, coordinated the study, and wrote the manuscript. Jin-Sou Chen, Fa-Shu Xu, Xue-Lian He, and Sheng-Dong Yuan performed the field work. Kang Luo improved the manuscript. Zheng-Hua He, Du-Jie-Ci-Dan, Hua Yang, Jin-liang Li, and Luxiang Lin revised the manuscript. All authors have read and approved the submission of this manuscript.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.