Wolf Howls Reported in throughout New England but Little Evidence for Wolves Found
Reposted from The Cold Hollow Chronicle
According to a recent report by the Wolf Conservation Center, the wolves that were once indigenous to New England and believed to be extinct are making a comeback.
During the last three centuries, much of the wolves’ wilderness habitat had disappeared due to the massive influx of European settlers converting forest lands into farmland. Wolves were perceived to be a great threat not only to livestock, but also to humans, in spite of the fact that wolves rarely attack humans and, by most accounts, go well out of their way to avoid human contact.
According to experts, wolves were virtually eradicated throughout New England by the middle of the 19th century. As the Wolf Conservation Center notes, the sound of wolf howls could be heard in the mountains throughout the Northeast for centuries even as late as the early 20th century. But extermination policies encouraged the killing of not only wolves, but all forms of wild canids, including coyotes.
In spite of the widespread systematic efforts driven by many farmers, more modern scientifically-informed understandings of wolf populations reveals that wolves posed very little threat to livestock and virtually no threat to humans whatsoever. Education efforts have since generated initiatives to help revive the dwindling wolf packs which may explain the growing number of wolf and coy-wolf sightings throughout northern New York, Vermont and New Hampshire.
To read the complete article, visit The Cold Hollow Chronicle here.