Wolves in New England

There were once wolves in New England...

At one point in New England's history, it was commonplace to hear a wolf howl in the distance, but now, most New Englanders would never dream of hearing such a sound in their state. Why is that? According to written historical accounts, wolves were once abundant throughout New England, and then they just vanished. This "mysterious" disappearance was actually the result of a widespread effort of New England colonists to eradicate the wolf from the area, as a result of wolves preying on their livestock. Humans extirpated - or caused wolves to go locally extinct - from New England, and that is why there are no wolves here today.

Historical Wolf Populations

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• Original Numbers:

Although there are no written historical records of the exact numbers of wolf populations prior to the arrival of the New England colonists, many early Eurpean settlers' descriptions of the natural landscape in New England clearly state that wolves were once abundant in the area. In fact, estimates predict that there were several thousand wolves in the New England area. (5,16, 30,43, 44)

• Habitat:

Wolves were likely abundant because their primary habitat - unspoiled forests and wetlands - were also widespread before colonial settlements grew, which is important for a species with such large home ranges. (5)

• Prey:

Additionally, historical colonial accounts indicate that the wolves' prey populations, especially deer, were abundant in the early colonial period, meaning that they could support larger populations of wolves. (5)

Why the Wolves Disappeared

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• When the colonists arrived in New England, they changed the landscape dramatically by bringing non-native livestock, hunting native species, and clearing wide tracts of land for agriculture. This both reduced the habitat and prey base of wolves, and initiated their populaiton decline. (5,11)

• As wolves' prey base decreased and their habitat became smaller and closer to human settlements, they began to kill the precious livestock of the settlers. This in addition to their direct competition with settlers for wild prey  species, made wolves "nusiance" animals in the eyes of the colonists, as seen in this quote below: (3,5)

  • "Still, one of the earliest ecological relationships of which the colonists were aware led them to believe that the numbers of deer might be increased if only wolves could be eliminated. 'Here is good store of deer,' wrote William Hammond; 'were it not for the wolves here would be abound, for the does have most two fawns at once, and some have three, but the wolves destroy them.'" (Cronon, pg. 24​).

• Once colonists deemed wolves a threat, they set up "Wolf Bounties " that offered monetary rewards for  skilled hunters and trappers who killed nusiance wolves, often in particulary cruel ways. (5,13)

  • The first bounty was established in1630 by the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and between 1700 and 1737, Massachusetts saw approximately 3043 bounties paid for killed wolves. (11)

  • Colonial towns would hire skilled hunters and trappers and Native Americans to catch and kill wolves, paying them when they brought in the severed head of each wolf killed. (5)

  • Towns would pay larger sums for more bothersome wolves, such as when New Haven, CT offered a 5 pound bounty in 1657 for the head of a particularly troublesome black wolf. (5,18)

  • This system had some issues, as it was difficult to tell if the wolf killed was the one bothering the town, and hunters sometimes brought the same head to several towns to colllect multiple bounties.​​ (5)
  • Whatever the issues, however, this wolf bounty system was widespread throughout New England, and was largely responsible for the extirpation of wolves from the region. (5,11)

• As settlers spread west outside of New England,  they continued to persecute wolves across North America, and, in fact, anti-wolf campaigns continued into the early twentieth century, wiped wolves out from most of the U.S. (3,5,33,34)

Population Crash

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• As the bounty system grew, wolf populations declined dramatically, due to the loss of their habitat, loss of their prey, and increased mortality rate due to persecution by humans. (11)

• A 2003 study  by Foster about the changing wildlife dynamics of New England showed that the wolf population of Massachusetts crashed as the number of bounties peaked.

• The last wolves in New England were seen in the early ninteenth century, with the last wolf in Massachussets being killed in the 1840s. (17)