Wolfers was a term used to refer to both professional and civilian wolf hunters who operated in North America in the 19th and early 20th centuries. During the

gold rush A gold rush or gold fever is a discovery of gold—sometimes accompanied by other precious metals and rare-earth minerals—that brings an onrush of miners seeking their fortune. Major gold rushes took place in the 19th century in Australia, New Ze ...

es of the 1840s to the 1880s some of the participating men turned to wolfing when the harsh winters impeded their wagons. In 1860, the majority of wolfers were civilians who having failed to make their fortune on the

Great Plains The Great Plains (french: Grandes Plaines), sometimes simply "the Plains", is a broad expanse of flatland in North America. It is located west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains, much of it covered in prairie, steppe, and ...

through minerals, transport or land, worked as menial laborers who hunted wolves as a formal occupation for extra income. Wolfers sold the wolf pelts to regional fur traders for up to two dollars each. Later, as the cattle industry expanded across the plains, wolvers cashed in on the bounties offered by many western states. In the three decades after 1865, wolfers had almost exterminated every wolf from

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by b ...

the Dakotas The Dakotas is a collective term for the U.S. states of North Dakota and South Dakota. It has been used historically to describe the Dakota Territory, and is still used for the collective heritage, culture, geography, fauna, sociology, econo ...

, from

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. It cost a wolfer about $150 to equip himself for a winter wolf hunt when the pelts were prime. An investment such as this could bring in up to $3,000 in furs over the course of three to four months. A typical method of killing wolves involved the shooting of a certain number of

ungulates Ungulates ( ) are members of the diverse clade Ungulata which primarily consists of large mammals with hooves. These include odd-toed ungulates such as horses, rhinoceroses, and tapirs; and even-toed ungulates such as cattle, pigs, giraffes, ca ...

, lacing the carcasses with

strychnine Strychnine (, , US chiefly ) is a highly toxic, colorless, bitter, crystalline alkaloid used as a pesticide, particularly for killing small vertebrates such as birds and rodents. Strychnine, when inhaled, swallowed, or absorbed through the e ...

, then returning the next day to find the poisoned wolves. The majority of commercial wolfers in the 1870s worked for ranchers. Wolfer activities peaked from 1875–1895 as

cattlemen A cowboy is an animal herder who tends cattle on ranches in North America, traditionally on horseback, and often performs a multitude of other ranch-related tasks. The historic American cowboy of the late 19th century arose from the ''vaquero'' ...

increasingly blamed all economic shortfalls on wolf depredation, resulting in some dedicated hunters laying down poison in lines of up to 150 miles. Acts of fraud in the claiming of wolf bounties were not uncommon in this period. In some cases, wolfers would kill wolf pups and deliberately spare the mother in order to allow her to breed again the next year. Others would show one magistrate a wolf body part, while showing another a body part from the same animal, thus getting paid twice for the same kill. On July 1, 1915, the US government hired its first government wolf hunters. Unlike the civilian bounty hunters of the prior century, the government hunters approached their work methodically and soberly. Before being disbanded on June 30, 1942, the US government hunters killed over 24,132 wolves. In Canada, a government-backed wolf extermination programme was initiated in 1948 after serious declines in caribou herds in the Northern Territories and a

rabies Rabies is a viral disease that causes encephalitis in humans and other mammals. Early symptoms can include fever and tingling at the site of exposure. These symptoms are followed by one or more of the following symptoms: nausea, vomiting, vi ...

concern due to wolves migrating south near populated areas. 39,960 cyanide guns, 106,100 cyanide cartridges and 628,000 strychnine pellets were distributed. Up to 17,500 wolves were poisoned in Canada between 1955 and 1961. In the mid-1950s, wolf bounties were dropped in the western provinces in favour of hiring provincial hunters. Quebec's wolf bounties ended in 1971 and Ontario in 1972. Overall, 20,000 wolves were bountied between 1935–1955 in British Columbia, 12,000 between 1942–1955 in Alberta and 33,000 between 1947–1971 in Ontario.

References

{{Reflist *Lopez, Barry. ''Of Wolves and Men''. Charles Scribner's sons, 1978. American frontier Wolf hunting

See also

References