Wildlife Incident Reporting

November 2, 2023

Question: Why is it helpful to CDFW to have people fill out wildlife incident reports?

Answer: The Wildlife Incident Reporting (WIR) system ( https://apps.wildlife.ca.gov/wir )is helpful to CDFW as the department continues to learn about the behavior and location of wildlife through reported sightings and encounters. People reporting a wildlife incident are asked for their contact information, the date and location of the incident, the species involved and if they considered it a rare sighting. The information provided to CDFW assists the department in its mission of managing California’s diverse wildlife populations.

When reports are made about conflict with wildlife, the local biologist or human-wildlife-conflict specialist is automatically alerted so they can contact the reporting party to learn more about the incident and offer helpful solutions to preventing additional conflicts. The highest rate of incident reporting happens in late summer and early fall, but it’s not clear to CDFW if that’s when wildlife is most active or when people are more likely to be outdoors experiencing these encounters. The WIR system receives between four and six thousand reports a year with bear, coyote and mountain lion incidents being the most common.

The public is encouraged to report all their wildlife encounters via the WIR. The more people that use the reporting tool, the better and more helpful the data is. The goal of data collection is to assist the department in helping the public respond to wildlife issues. Please see the WIR page.