Cry Wolf in Connecticut Lately? You May Be Right

March 8th, 2008 categories: Central Connecticut News & Information

File this under “exciting news but I don’t want to ever find out personally that it’s true.”

According to a report from the US Fish and Wildlife Service, a dog-like animal found dead in Western Massachusetts this fall was positively identified through genetic testing as a Gray Wolf.

From the blog Connecticut Hunting Today:

It’s unclear where the wolf came from — the best guess is that it made its way south from established wolf populations in Ontario or Quebec…

Dale May, director of the wildlife division of the state Department of Environmental Protection, said young wolves seeking to establish their own territory can travel “100, 200 or 300 miles.” If a wolf were able to move from Canada to Massachusetts, May said, there’s reason to think one might eventually wander even farther south into the forests of northern Connecticut…

A single gray wolf won’t mean a pack will ever set up residence in Connecticut. May said wolves need 50 to 100 square miles of wild country to operate successfully.

“That means low human population and a low road density,” he said. “There aren’t many places like that in Connecticut.”…

Healy said this is the third gray wolf identified in recent years in the Northeast — the others were in Maine and northern New York. But he said it’s very possible these three weren’t loners and that other wolves are drifting down into the region from Canada.

“That’s what a lot of people have said,” Healy said. “You don’t know what else is out there.”

Howell said both Maine and the Adirondacks have long been considered prime wolf territory, and there have been anecdotal sightings of wolves in the region in the past.

“This has been the most definitive discovery,” Howell said. “This is pretty exciting.”

What has surprised wildlife experts is that to get from the Canadian border to Massachusetts, a wolf would need to cross the St. Lawrence River as well as land, staying largely undiscovered.

“He did a lot of traveling without being noticed,” Howell said.

Healy said the area around Shelburne in western Massachusetts is heavily wooded. A wolf that crossed the St. Lawrence could wander through Vermont into Massachusetts without crossing the paths of many humans.

May said if wolves do establish themselves in Maine or New York, it would be more likely one could wander from there to Connecticut.

May said wildlife biologists are learning many animals in the Northeast — while still wary of humans — have learned they can coexist with them.

“We’re finding a lot of these animals are far more adaptable than we think they are.”