Canis Lupis: Delighting in "Slaughter and Destruction"?

Monday's reading in Nature Guide to the Northern Forest raised several important topics in the faunal history of the Adirondacks. I was most interested in Marchand's discussion of the wolf, specifically Zadock Thompson's characterization of them. Early settlers obviously had a different understanding of wilderness than we do today. It seems that anything that presented a threat towards the settlers' success, was viewed negatively and eradicated as soon as possible, wether this be trees or animals. Through exploring primary sources, we can understand what early settlers' attitudes towards Adirondack animals were. This, in turn, allows us to understand the reasons that settlers had for hunting a species towards almost complete extinction in the 19th century.

Zadock Thomspon was a well-known naturalist from Vermont. He was the Assistant State Geologist of Vermont from 1845 to 1848 and the State Naturalist from 1853 to 1856. He wrote several books about Vermont's history and its geological, botanical, and zoological makeup. One of his best known works was his History of Vermont, Natural, Civil, an Statistical. In this book, he provided physical descriptions as well as the historical significance of the animals native to the Vermont and Adirondack region. One of his most memorable descriptions is of the Canis Lupus, or the common wolf. Thompson, after providing fur descriptions and teeth dimensions, delves into the history of the animal. One might expect a more scientific and neutral tone to his description, but instead he constructs a frightening depiction of the wolf, which he makes out to be as some sort of monster.

" For some years after the settlement of this state was commenced, wolves were so numerous and made such havoc of the flocks of sheep, that the keeping of sheep was a very precarious business. At some seasons particularly in the winter, the would prowl through the settlements by night in large companies, destroying whole flocks in their way, and, after merely drinking their blood and perhaps eating a small portion of the choicest and tenderest parts, would leave the carcasses scattered about the enclosure and going in quest of new victims. Slaughter and destruction seemed their chief delight; and while marauding the country they kept up such horrid and prolonged howlings as were calculated, not only to to thrill terror through their timorous victims, but the appall the hearts of the inhabitants of the neighborhood." 

(https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=8BUzAQAAMAAJ&rdid=book-8BUzAQAAMAAJ&rdot=1) 

Thompson's description is full of frightening imagery and diction, which surely further incited settlers to  hunt these wolves, which were not understood within the context of the forest ecosystem, but rather as dangerous deterrents to humans. It seems that even the most educated and ecologically in-touch person of the 19th century could not understand or explore the fauna of the region without a personal bias of fear. This passage really captures the fear that early settlers must have felt while trying to live in the Adirondacks. Although we can fault early settlers for hunting wolves and mountain lions to extinction, this passage evokes an understanding of the immense terror that people held towards these animals. As we can see, much has changed in human attitudes towards the wellbeing of animals in less than two centuries.