Natural History

Ch. Ramsden Rex was an imported Russian wolfhound that Shoemaker owned. Shoemaker wanted to restore the wolf to Pennsylvania in order to develop a cottage industry of wolf coursing in the state.

The wolf was extinct in Pennsylvania by 1917, but Henry Wharton Shoemaker thought that the wolf should be restored to the Commonwealth to restore an ecological balance and to provide sportsmen with a big game species to hunt.

The idea was something of a radical idea in those days, for it was considered progressive and even conservation-minded to want wolves to disappear.  The US Forest Service and the USDA were working together to kill off the last wolves that ran in the cattle and sheep ranges of the West, and even in Yellowstone National Park, rangers were waging a war to see that wolves no longer molested the herds of ungulates.

This conservation ethic came from Britain and Germany, where gamekeepers and foresters often worked hard to keep predator numbers down in order to keep high populations of game species.  Most of these early conservationists were ardent hunters, and most hunters today have certain amount of the conservation ethic. Butt in the nineteenth century, it was customary for hunters to be profligate with the game the killed. North America seemed to have an limitless supply of game species, so it was just assumed that one could kill as many animals as one wanted.  By the turn of the century, sportsmen realized that killing so many animals so wantonly was not a wise endeavor, so they became conservationists. Ted Roosevelt was among the most famous proponents of this sort of wildlife conservation.

Shoemaker was also in this vein, but he was radical for the time because he extended this conservation ethic to wolves. Wolves could be preserved and managed as a game species.  Not someone who resisted romantic notions, he postulated that Pennsylvania wolf hunters could hunt them in the way wolves were hunted in Ireland and Russia– with big coursing dogs!  Shoemaker owned a champion Russian wolfhound (borzoi), and he thought the Pennsylvania wolf hunters could cross them with Irish wolfhounds to make a superior Pennsylvania wolf coursing dog.

This text comes from an edition of Shoemaker’s Wolf Days in Pennsylvania and is dated to 1917:

From the number of hunters who took out licenses in 1916—upwards of three hundred thousand—it would seem that they formed an important part of the population of Pennsylvania. When it is considered how small a return they received for their efforts, their spirit and enthusiasm for the chase seems all the more commendable. Despite the valiant efforts of Dr. Kalbfus, there was very little found to kill during the various “open seasons” which came to an end on the first days of 1914, 1915 and 1916. It is to be doubted if two thousand deer were killed in the entire Commonwealth during these three seasons. With such meagre results the time is bound to be at hand when a strong demand will be made to re-stock the forests with game worthy of the name. Civilized men are beginning to find that killing rabbits, quails .and squirrels is little better than a barnyard slaughter, that they do not furnish the excitement expected. Intelligent hunters read of struggles with wolves and mountain lions, of coyote coursing, and dispatching grizzlies in the West, and compare it to the feeble pastime of slaying a few mangey rabbits at home, to the disparagement of the home sport. A strong demand will be made to stock the Pennsylvania wilds, not with more rabbits, quails, ring-neck pheasants and squirrels, but with savage beasts, such as panthers, red bears and wolves. Deer and elk are here already, but without the so-called predatory beasts to harass them, they are sure to deteriorate. Wolf and panther hunting can be made the royal sport of Pennsylvania. Wolves, unmolested, except at certain seasons, could soon make themselves at home, and would prove a great benefit alike to sportsmen and to the game animals and birds. As far as damage to sheep is concerned, it would be less than is now done by dogs. As to the best variety of wolf to introduce, the Black Wolt seems to have been able to adjust itself to conditions; it was the last to be exterminated. As far as known, the Eastern black wolf is now extinct. The Western timber wolf requires a wider range than Pennsylvania could afford. The grey Pennsylvania wolf is gone, but its congeners in the West Virginia wilds might be introduced with advantage. The brown Pennsylvania wolf is probably extinct, as its relatives in North Carolina and Tennessee has been recently killed to the last specimen by professional hunters. The Western coyote might adapt itself, and could be introduced if no other varieties were available. This animal, as already stated, resembles the Pennsylvania brown wolf in many respects. It affords sport wherever it is known, and is hardy, is game and resourceful. However, it is too prone to degenerate into a mere poultry thief to make its introduction popular. The methods of the old Pennsylvania bounty hunters would not be used by the sportsmen of the future. These included trapping, snaring, pitfalls and poisoning. The wolf hunting as practiced in Ireland in the eighteenth century, and in France today, would be best suited to present-day needs in the Keystone State. Years ago in England the open season for hunting wolves was between December 25 and March 25. It furnished ideal “Christmas” sport. A wolf hunt in France is described as follows: “An open spot is generally chosen at some distance from the great coverts where the wolves were known to lie, and here, in concealment, a brace—sometimes two brace—of wolf hounds were placed. A horse was killed and the fore-quarters were trailed through the paths and ways in the wood during the previous day, and back to where the carcass lay, and there they were left. When night approached, out came the wolves, and, having struck the scent, they followed it until they found the dead horse, when, of course, they began to feed on the flesh, and early in the morning, just before day-break, the hunters placed their dogs so as to prevent the wolves from returning to cover. When a wolf came to the spot, the man in charge of the wolf-hounds suffered him to pass by the first, but the last were let slip full in his face, and at the same instant the others were let slip also; the first staying him ever so little, he was sure to be attacked on all sides at once, and therefore the more easily taken.” This is similar to the methods followed by the Grand Dukes at Gatchina, in Russia. This aptly portrays a sport of the future for Pennsylvania gentlemen. Could anything be more blood-curdling or inspiring? In Ireland the wealthy gentry hunted wolves on horse-back. The animals were baited to come into the open, and then mounted men and wolf-hounds made after them, the effort being put forth to prevent them from getting back to cover. The huntsmen were armed with spears, and pinioned the fierce beasts to the earth from their galloping steeds. In our Western States, coyotes, and occasionally timber wolves, are coursed on the open plains by Russian wolf-hounds, followed by mounted hunters. The wolves, if run down, are killed by the pack of dogs or elses shot by the hunters. This is often done on the Russian Steppes, by a stronger race of wolfhounds than has been developed as yet in the United States. In an effort to arouse interest in a better type of wolf dogs, the writer of these pages offered two special prizes at the Dog Show of the Westminster Kennel Club, held in New York in February, 1914, for Russian wolf-hounds which had actually coursed wolves, or were kept for this purpose in a wolf country. At present the Irish wolf-hound looks to be more capable of running down wolves than the Russian variety, which is called the Borzoi. The breeding and sale of wolf dogs would add greatly to the income of Pennsylvania mountaineers. A comparison of the different varieties of wolf dogs can be gleaned from the following, which is quoted from the New York “World”: “Several years ago General Roger Williams, of Lexington, Ky.,was a judge in a wolf hunting contest in Colorado, in which Russian wolf-hounds and Scotch deer-hounds contested. Under the stipulations only two dogs could be turned loose on one wolf. Among the Russian dogs was one which had won the gold medals in a wolf-killing contest at St. Petersburg, offered by the Czar, and his owner claimed that he could kill any American wolf. But the Russian dogs failed, so did the Scotch dogs. One of the latter quit fighting for a moment and its owner pulled a revolver and shot the dog dead, saying he would not have a dog which would quit fighting.” A letter from California states that Russian wolf-hounds are a failure on ranches where they have been installed for the purpose of killing coyotes and wolves, and do as much damage to live stock as the wolves. The writer of this article is a lover of the Russian wolf-hound, and has bred the dogs since 1906. But he believes the race will have to be strengthened by actual contact with wolves, or it will deteriorate into a mere showy house-pet. In 1908 he obtained two coyotes and a Bosnian wolf for a chase at McElhattan, Clinton County. The wolf-hounds did not seem inclined to course the animals, so the chase was never held. The coyotes are now in the Reading Zoo, and the wolf was sold to a traveling showman. According to the newspapers this animal broke out of the wagon somewhere near Rochester, N. Y., bit a cow which was pasturing peacefully by the road side, and also frightened a little girl. The Russian wolfhound is a beautiful and intelligent animal, and has been justly called the “aristocrat of the dog kingdom.” Perhaps a cross between this breed and the Irish wolfhound would produce the right sort for Pennsylvania wolf hunting. With all these prospects there is a glorious vista ahead for dog-lovers and true sportsmen, if only we can get the right kind of wolves again! (pg. 87-91 ).

I have not heard of the French using sight hounds to hunt wolves, but I did know that they sometimes used the large pack hounds to run wolves down in a very similar manner to the way the English used foxhounds to run down foxes. I have heard of people using dead horses a bait for wolves, and it still sometimes used by people who illegally bait in black bears. I remember coming across a story of some bear baiters in West Virginia who were caught setting out a horse carcass filled with jelly doughnuts. I guess they thought the bear needed some dessert with its final meal.

I also think that Shoemaker may have missed out on an important fact about sight hounds. Sight hounds cannot be used in densely forested areas. Most of the places he was writing about were heavily forested regions in very steep, mountainous terrain.  Sighthounds are much more effective in open terrain, where they are less likely to run into a tree and hurt themselves. The can handle mountains, but the Allegheny Plateau is just so choppy and steep that it would be very hard for a sight hound to get going at top speed for any great distance. In the flatter and more open parts of Pennsylvania, they might have some utility, but in the mountains, this is a flight of fancy.

One must keep in mind that Shoemaker’s taxonomy of Pennsylvania wolves is a bit screwy. I do think there is some merit to the possibility that the coyote did live in the Eastern US, and this “small brown wolf” was the original Eastern coyote. However, the black and gray wolves appear to have been the same species, though likely of different subspecies. It is of note that he mentioned that large gray wolves were living in West Virginia, which contradicts the US Fish and Wildlife Service’s assertion that only “red wolves” lived here. The modern red wolf is a recent hybrid between several wolf subspecies and the coyote.

Shoemaker claimed that wolves were living in West Virginia at this late date, which is a definite possibility. The WVDNR states the wolf was extinct by 1900, but there are so many remote areas where a wolves could hide out for many years.

The notion of preserving wolves for hunters isn’t all that foreign to me.

My mother said told me that during the 60’s, when fur prices were quite high, my grandfather, an ardent fox hunter and hound enthusiast, cursed the profligacy of trappers. The trappers reduced fox numbers, and because he was really a fox chaser and not a fox hunter, he hated what it was doing to red fox numbers.

He preferred that foxes be around in relatively high numbers so that he and his friends could chase them. In this part of the world, foxes are not hunted with riders following the hounds. And the foxes are virtually never driven out to be shot. They are simply chased for the sport of it– to test the stamina and scenting powers of individual hounds and to have some bit of community, which is a rapidly vanishing commodity in this country.

I think that Shoemaker’s heart was in the right place, but it is obvious that whatever ideas he might have had about conserving wolves as game animals has largely fell upon deaf ears.

Hunters who live in wolf country want them controlled, if not extirpated from the countryside once again.

And then, there is large sector of wolf advocates who oppose killing any animal for any reason.

Of course, the more balanced view that Shoemaker and others may have espoused largely get ignored in the dichotomy of the extremes.

Wolves haven’t been reintroduced to Pennsylvania, but if the “little brown wolf” is what Shoemaker though it was, part of his dream of reintroducing wolves may have already come to pass.

Shoemaker thought the little brown wolf was the same species as the coyote of the West. He also thought that the brown wolves of the South were also coyotes, which might explain why John  Smith wrote that that wolves of Virginia were much smaller than those of Europe. They weren’t wolves at all. They were coyotes living in the East.

This notion that coyotes may have always lived in the East is very controversial, but I think the bulk of the historical record shows that there were small wolves in the South that were different from the gray and black wolves, which were probably actual wolves. The unfortunate thing about these coyotes is they were deemed “red wolves,” a species that never existed until after colonization.

The Western coyote colonized the land that was left unoccupied when the wolves and the original Eastern coyote were extirpated. It crossbred with wolves and possibly remnant Eastern coyotes to form the modern Eastern coyote. The so-called red wolf of today is just a modern Eastern coyote with a bit more wolf in it than one normally finds in Eastern coyotes. That’s what the most sophisticated genetic analyses have found, but it’s not a finding that is all that well-received for obvious reasons.

Shoemaker provides one of the most detailed accounts of what wolves were like in the Eastern United States, but much of his writing on the subject has largely been ignored.

This is unfortunate, because I think he may have had some insights from the mountain people of Pennsylvania that one might not find in the peer-reviewed journals of today.  Or on the blogosphere with its denizens of self-styled experts.

I don’t think his plan to return wolves to Pennsylvania for the purposes of using borzoi was probably not feasible.

Pennsylvania just doesn’t have steppes.