Returning wolves fill ecological void in Northeast

The wolf is back in the Northeast, if in fact it was ever gone. The killing of an 85-pound wolf by a western Massachusetts sheep farmer in October 2007 is likely evidence that wolves now range throughout much of the northeast from the Adirondacks to northern Maine. The animal was killed just 80 miles from where a wolf was killed in New York in 2001. A spokesperson for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service wrongly claimed that the Massachusetts animal was the first gray wolf found in the Northeast since a wolf was killed near Moosehead Lake in 1993. In fact, the Massachusetts animal was at least the eighth DNA-confirmed wolf killed south of the St. Lawrence River since 1993. Wolves have also been killed in New York, Maine, Vermont and Quebec.

It is widely believed that wolves were extirpated south of the St. Lawrence River by around the turn of the 20th century as they, their prey and their habitats were destroyed by humans. Although breeding populations may have been eliminated, occasional wolves continued to appear in the northeast U.S., possible dispersers from north of the St. Lawrence. A wolf was killed in western Massachusetts in 1902 and another wolf was seen in that state in 1918. A pack of wolves was reported to have roamed northwest New York in the 1930s. An animal reported to be a wolf was killed near Cherryfield, Maine, in November 1953. Several other reported wolves were killed in New York in the 1950s and 1960s, the skull of one of which is in the Smithsonian.

The closest acknowledged wolf populations to the northeast U.S. are in southern Quebec, some 60 miles from New York and 50 miles from Maine. The Frontenac Axis in southeast Ontario may serve as a wolf dispersal corridor from Canada into the U.S. The axis extends south from wolf range to the north shore of the St. Lawrence River. Moose, fisher and lynx have been documented crossing the St. Lawrence from New York into Ontario. Wolves are very capable of making the same journey from north to south.

The 2007 Massachusetts wolf was identified by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as an eastern gray wolf. The wolf was likely a hybrid gray wolf-eastern wolf with a very small percentage of coyote. As a gray wolf hybrid, however, it was protected under the Endangered Species Act. Recent DNA analyses of Maine’s 1993 and 1996 wolves indicate that they were primarily gray wolf with smaller percentages of eastern wolf and coyote. They were most genetically similar to gray-eastern wolf hybrids that live in a zone that stretches across Ontario and Quebec.

Gray wolves range across much of Canada from Labrador to the Yukon. Eastern wolves are closely related to red wolves and live in southern portions of Ontario and Quebec, most notably in and around Algonquin Park. Eastern wolves are smaller than gray wolves with adult males in Algonquin Park averaging only 65 pounds. The male wolves documented killed in the Northeast in recent years have averaged 85 to 90 pounds. It is not known how many eastern wolves and female gray wolves have been killed in the Northeast that were simply considered coyotes due to their smaller size. The so-called coyotes of the northeast U.S. are actually coyote-eastern wolf-gray wolf hybrids with varying percentages of each.

The U.S. and Canadian governments provide virtually no protection for wolves that may be attempting to recolonize the northeast U.S. from Canada. All of the northeast states allow virtually unlimited killing of “coyotes” and this has resulted in the illegal killing of wolves. There is growing evidence that wolves are attempting to recolonize the northeast U.S., including DNA evidence of a possible breeding population.

As ungulate populations in the Northeast grow and expand, the need for natural population checks continues to grow as well. The gray wolf is filling an ecological void. If simply allowed to survive, it will do just that.

John Glowa lives in South China.