Tom Dillard: Humans in sheep's clothing wipe out Arkansas wolves

Every time I read a story about Arkansas State University's athletic teams, I am reminded that their school mascot, the Red Wolf, is lost to Arkansas and is critically endangered in its last refuge in North Carolina.

Both the red wolf and its larger cousin the gray wolf were found in large numbers throughout Arkansas and the southeast when Europeans arrived on the scene. The arrival of settlers in Arkansas not long after the Louisiana Purchase was the beginning of the end for all wolf species in the state.

No animal was more reviled by our ancestors than the wolf. In Europe the wolf has been demonized through folk tales and nursery rhymes since ancient times, so it was only natural for the image of the "big bad wolf" to transfer to the American frontier.

Early settlers found large numbers of wolves throughout Arkansas. The eastern gray wolf (Canis lupus) roamed across most of North America, while the red wolf (Canis rufus) had a more limited southeastern range. Naturalist Harold Alexander described the red wolf of the Mississippi Valley as "a smaller edition of the eastern gray wolf."

Wolves, as well as panthers and bears, were accused of killing the settlers' poultry and livestock. Pigs, which often ran loose in the woods, were prized by all sorts of large predators, but wolves usually got the blame. The first legislative session after Arkansas became a state in 1836 saw the adoption of a $3 bounty on wolves. Indeed, it was during debate on this bill that a fight broke out in the House of Representatives, with the speaker killing a fellow legislator.

Settlers often told stories of being attacked by wolves. Silas Turnbo, an early settler in Marion County and pioneering collector of folk stories, included many wolf attacks in his writings. Turnbo wrote that large numbers of wolves were known to live along Crooked Creek in Boone and Marion counties and at times "make the wild forest hideous with their fearful noise."

A prospector, looking to file a mineral claim, was attacked one evening as he tended the campfire and made supper: "... a gang of wolves invaded camp and a scene of stirring nature ensued."

The prospector abandoned camp and fled atop his unsaddled horse. Many of Turnbo's stories involved last-minute rescues or daring escapes.

Henry Rowe Schoolcraft traveled through north Arkansas in 1819 and reported hearing howling beginning shortly after dark -- often from wolves less than 200 yards away. Friedrich Gerstacker, a German sportsman who toured Arkansas in the late 1830s, had many wolf encounters. On one occasion, he spent a cold night lost in a forest. As he huddled under an uprooted tree, "the wolves seemed almost tame, for some came within a few paces of me and howled awfully."

On another occasion, Gerstacker tried to kill a wolf crossing the Fourche La Fave River. Sitting in a dugout canoe and unarmed except for a paddle, Gerstacker watched as "an immense wolf, as black as pitch, with a white star on his breast," came out of the forest and began swimming across the river. He caught up with the beast just before it reached shore, but "as I raised the paddle ... the vile canoe slipped from under me." He bemoaned "seeing my prey escape" since "a wolf's scalp is valued at three dollars in Arkansas."

Almost a century later in 1917, it was not a bounty but the protection of livestock that fueled wolf hunts by the families along Moccasin Creek north of Russellville. Tate C. "Piney" Page recalled in his 1972 autobiography his family defending their livestock against wolves.

It began shortly after sundown when howling from a far ridge was answered by a much closer pack. A 9-year-old nephew "snuggled closer to the fire and edged nearer the grownups." The next day, two wolves attacked a calf, but they fled when discovered, clearing a "10-rail fence without apparent effort."

Many wolves were killed in community-wide hunts. In September 1918, a large hunt was organized at Glenwood in Pike County involving 150 dogs and the use of fire. The hunt, spread over several days, killed dozens of wolves. Two dogs were killed in desperate fights with wolves along the Little Missouri River. The event also included a dinner "of barbecued beef and pork and roasted wolf heads."

Despite their best efforts, settlers were unable to completely destroy the wolf population in Arkansas. It took the state and federal governments to accomplish that deed. In 1915 the U.S. government began appropriating funds to eradicate wolves as well as other predators.

In 1963 the Federal Division of Predator and Rodent Control killed 2,779 wolves, 20,780 bobcats, 89,653 coyotes, 294 mountain lions, and 842 bears in a national assault on predators. The state government also mounted eradication efforts against wolves. The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission employed a team of trappers who destroyed hundreds of wolves and coyotes.

By 1940 the gray wolf was gone from Arkansas, and the red wolf was in retreat. Loss of habitat played a major role in the disappearance of the red wolf, though they held on in small numbers in the Ouachita and Ozark mountains. A prolonged search in 1964 employed taped recordings of howling wolves, but only two wolves responded during a long effort.

The red wolf was extinct in Arkansas and most of the country by 1967, with only a few survivors holding out in coastal Louisiana and Texas. After a captive breeding program, several wolves were relocated to an isolated preserve in North Carolina. After a rapid initial gain, the population is now down to fewer than 100 adults.

Arkansas evenings are still punctuated by howling, but it is from the burgeoning coyote population.

Tom Dillard is a historian and retired archivist living near Glen Rose in rural Hot Spring County. Email him at Arktopia.td@gmail.com. An earlier version of this column was published Sept. 20, 2009.

NAN Profiles on 05/31/2020

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