Abstract

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