Could it have been a wolf? Wouldn’t that be cool! Well, no. It probably would not be a good thing to have a wolf roaming our neighborhood. But it would not exactly be unheard of either.
Earlier in the spring, I was having dinner with friends in JP, when suddenly my phone started to ping repeatedly – a clear sign that “something” has happened. It turns out that a “very large” coyote was spotted in our neighborhood, and was hanging out on the corner near our yard. It stayed around for a while, but of course was gone by time we got home later that evening.
But that got me thinking – what if it wasn’t a coyote? We have seen plentiful coyotes in our neighborhood over the past several years, but most are pretty small. Could it have been a wolf, and wouldn’t that be cool? Well, no. It probably would not be a good thing to have a wolf roaming our neighborhood. But it would not exactly be unheard of either.
When English settlers arrived in this area in the 1600s, wolves were plentiful. Unfortunately (for the wolves), they are readily adaptable to changes in their environment, so they were not disturbed by human habitation. In fact, as the settlers settled in, they started to bring with them all sorts of tasty critters like sheep, which were easier for the wolves to catch than deer and other wild animals. As early as 1630, the Massachusetts Bay Colony set a generous bounty on wolves to encourage their killing and safeguard the settlements and livestock. In about a century, the population of wolves in Massachusetts had plummeted. Remnant populations lived in the northern forests, but over the next century even these became scarce, and wolves were considered extinct in MA by the mid-1800s.
Needham also had its wolf challenges, as attested by both town records and place names from the 1600s and 1700s. From 1636, when Needham was still part of Dedham, there was a wolf bounty of ten shillings for each wolf pelt. No clue how much that would be worth today, but it was a substantial sum and intended as an incentive. Plus, the wolf pelt itself was valuable. Some Needham residents were considered to be particularly adept at wolf-hunting. Men of the Mills family had a reputation as “mighty hunters” that lasted well into the 19th century. The wolf bounty lasted in Needham until 1716; at that point, wolves were scarce enough that it was no longer considered necessary.
There were also bounties in Needham until the mid-1700s for wild cats – lynxes, bobcats, and mountain lions. There are still some bobcats in MA, but lynxes and mountain lions were eliminated in the mid-1800s.
Old Needham place names reflect that fact that wolf-hunting and the destruction of property caused by wolves was once a significant community concern. Through the 1700s, there was a Wolf Pit Hill and Wolf Pit Meadow in the angle between South Street and where Chestnut Street runs into Dover (now the vicinity of Heather Lane). A wolf pit was a trap – a hole in the ground that was baited and concealed with a thin covering of branches; the wolf would fall in while seeking the bait, and could not get out again. There was a second wolf pit in the area north of South Street, somewhere in the Town Forest. Wolves were also stalked and hunted with muskets, though there was concern that this should not occur on the Sabbath.
So what about these days? Coyotes began returning to this area from the west around the turn of the 20th century, as farming declined and the clearances reverted to woodland. Coyotes are now widespread and are found in every town in Massachusetts. They are scavengers, and thrive in suburban neighborhoods, where small pets, trash cans, compost piles, bird feeders, and the abundant rabbits make for easy prey. It was not uncommon for us to keep a “coyote watch” at the school bus stops in the mornings, especially in the spring when they come out to mate.
And wolves, though still quite rare in Massachusetts, are not unheard of. Since the 1990s, there has been discussion of trying to restore a wild population of gray wolves in New England. There is abundant isolated habitat, especially in the forests of Maine and northern Vermont. There does not seem to have been much progress yet in establishing a new wild population in the eastern US, but some evidence that the wolves still found in Canada are ranging father south. Gray wolves have been identified in Maine, northern Vermont, and upstate New York since about 1993, and a gray wolf was killed by a farmer in Shelburne, MA in 2007 (the only confirmed wolf sighting in MA since the 1700s). There is also some genetic evidence that coyotes and gray wolves have been interbreeding for some time, and that eastern coyotes today are in fact a mixture of coyote, wolf, and even domestic dog.
Even as hybrids, however, wolves and coyotes are relatively easy to tell apart. Wolves are much larger, with stockier bodies and longer legs. Their muzzles are broader and blunter, and their ears are small. Their fur is thick and tends to tuft around the jowls, and is generally gray. They tend to travel in packs. Coyotes are smaller and slimmer. They have pointy noses and high-set large and pointy ears. Their coats are more variable in color, but are generally in the browns. They are more solitary, and are usually seen alone.
Unfortunately, no one snapped a picture of the beast on our corner, so it’s not possible to say whether it was anything more than a large coyote seeking out more neighborhood rabbits. There was a similar sighting in Needham that caused some excitement around 10 years ago, which was judged by a local ecologist to be a large coyote with some wolf genes. So keep an eye peeled, and snap a picture if you can! The bears are back, so I guess this is possible too.
