Wolfers (hunting) facts for kids

A wolfer with wolfhounds near Amedon, North Dakota, 1904

Wolfers were people who hunted wolves in North America during the 1800s and early 1900s. Some were professional hunters, while others were regular people who hunted wolves for extra money.

Why Did People Hunt Wolves?

During the gold rushes from the 1840s to the 1880s, some gold seekers became wolf hunters when harsh winters made travel difficult. By 1860, many wolfers were civilians who hadn't found wealth in gold or land. They hunted wolves as a job to earn more money. They sold wolf furs to traders, sometimes getting up to two dollars for each.

Later, as the cattle industry grew across the plains, wolfers earned money from bounties. Bounties were rewards offered by many western states for killing wolves. In the 30 years after 1865, wolfers hunted so many wolves that they almost wiped them out from Texas to the Dakotas and from Missouri to Colorado.

How Did Wolfers Hunt?

Equipping for a winter wolf hunt could cost a wolfer about $150. However, this investment could bring in up to $3,000 in furs over three to four months. A common way to kill wolves was to shoot some hoofed animals like deer or elk. Then, they would put a strong poison called strychnine on the dead animals. The next day, they would return to find the poisoned wolves.

Most professional wolfers in the 1870s worked for ranchers. Ranchers often blamed wolves for economic problems, especially when their cattle were harmed. Wolfer activities were highest between 1875 and 1895. Some hunters would even lay out poison lines as long as 150 miles.

Were All Wolfers Honest?

Sometimes, wolfers would try to cheat when claiming bounties. For example, some would kill wolf pups but leave the mother alive. This was so the mother could have more pups the next year, giving the wolfer more wolves to hunt later. Others would show a wolf body part to one official to get paid, then show a different body part from the same wolf to another official, getting paid twice for one kill.

Government Wolf Hunting Programs

On July 1, 1915, the United States government started hiring its own wolf hunters. These government hunters worked in a more organized way than the civilian bounty hunters. Before their program ended on June 30, 1942, these US government hunters killed over 24,132 wolves.

Wolf Control in Canada

In Canada, a government-supported program to control wolves began in 1948. This happened because the number of caribou (a type of deer) in the Northwest Territories had dropped a lot. There was also a concern about rabies as wolves moved closer to towns.

Between 1955 and 1961, up to 17,500 wolves were poisoned in Canada. The government gave out many tools for this, including cyanide guns and strychnine pellets. In the mid-1950s, western Canadian provinces stopped offering wolf bounties. Instead, they hired provincial hunters. Quebec ended its wolf bounties in 1971, and Ontario in 1972. Overall, many wolves were hunted for bounties in Canada:

• 20,000 wolves in British Columbia between 1935 and 1955.
• 12,000 wolves in Alberta between 1942 and 1955.
• 33,000 wolves in Ontario between 1947 and 1971.