A wolf in sheep's territory
UNTIL RECENTLY, the town of Shelburne in Franklin County was most famous for the flower-laden pedestrian bridge over the Deerfield River in Shelburne Falls. Then a Shelburne farmer killed an animal that had been killing his sheep, and the animal turned out to be a wolf. Move over, Bridge of Flowers. Canis lupus is back.
The confirmation through a DNA test that the dead predator was in fact a pure-blood wolf and not a wolf-coyote or wolf-dog hybrid has set wildlife biologists to speculating about the extraordinary trek the animal must have made from the forests of Quebec or Ontario, on the other side of the St. Lawrence River. Those are the nearest known ranges of eastern gray wolves.
"Known" might be the operative word. In recent years, there have been scattered sightings of animals resembling wolves in different corners of New England, raising the possibility that the Shelburne male was not a long-distance traveler at all. But scientists suspect that many of the animals identified as wolves are actually coyotes, which can grow surprisingly large.
Massachusetts residents who have come to see deer as garden-munching pests or road hazards should not expect a new influx of wolves to solve their problem. Suburban and exurban areas overpopulated by deer are usually far from the thick woods favored by wolves. Also, if wolves ever did get close to built-up areas, they would also be near farms and livestock - and would likely suffer the fate of the sheep-killer in Shelburne.
Legal hunting and trapping in Canada have kept wolf populations in check, so the animals are under little pressure to spread out. But if Canada experiences the same decline in hunting that the United States has had, more wolves might be on the way. Since they were once common in New England, it would be a homecoming of sorts, though without brass bands. 