A 'Curious and Grim Testimony to a Persistent Human Blindness

Wolf Bounties in North America, 1630-1752

Bibliographic Data

ID12596236
AuthorsPaul D Barclay (0000-0001-7651-9288, corresponding author)
Year2002
Volume5
Issue1
Pages25-34
Publication date2002-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueEthics Place & Environment (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1366-879X • E-ISSN: 1469-6703
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/13668790220146429
OpenAlexW2056216167
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited18

The North American wolf became extinct east of the Appalachians by 1800. To colonial legislators, uniform, colony-wide wolf bounties, as incentives to wolf-extermination, seemed the simplest solution to a perceived threat to livestock and European settlements. To local taxpayers, considerations of parsimony and fraud loomed just as large. This tension led to wolf extermination policies that were costly and often counterproductive. The bounty laws, as enacted, amounted to a fight against the abstract wolf, instead of against individual predators. Its eventual 'success' brought about new troubles. Absent wolves, the eastern seaboard's ecosystem re-adjusted, allowing new predators and pests to flourish

Archaeology · Biology · Blindness · Criminology · Economics · Environmental ethics · Ethnology · Geography · Human settlement · Incentive · Predation · Sociology · American Environmental and Regional History · Archaeology and Natural History · History · Indigenous Studies and Ecology · Philosophy · Ecology