Early Maine Wildlife

Early Maine Wildlife: Historical Accounts of Canada Lynx, Moose,
Mountain Lion, White-tailed Deer, Wolverine, Wolves, and
Woodland Caribou, 1603 – 1930

by William B. Krohn and Christopher L. Hoving

Early Maine Wildlife cover imageThe Northeast, especially Maine, has an exceptionally rich heritage of early literature about wildlife. These writings are buried in obscure scientific books and journals, government documents, rare books, old newspapers, and discontinued sporting periodicals. The primary section of this book is a chronologically-arranged compilation of selected quotations from these hard-to-find sources, thus making accessible significant wildlife writings of early biologists, naturalists, and woodsmen from northern New England and eastern Canada.

While designed to be a reference-work for biologists, conservationists, folklorists, and historians, this book will also be of use to campers, hunters, trappers, and others interested in the region’s natural history. Early Maine Wildlife features early writings about the Canada lynx, moose, mountain lion, white-tailed deer, wolverine, wolves, and woodland caribou. To put the historical information about these species into a contemporary context, life history summaries of these animals are presented. These brief life histories are supported with recent technical bibliographic references for those wanting more detailed scientific information.

Although Early Maine Wildlife does not provide a thorough analysis of historical information, the book functions as a unique guide to help readers find important early records relating to the biology, distribution, and conservation of four predators and three ungulates. In addition to providing extensive quotations documenting the occurrence and status of each of the featured species, Early Maine Wildlife discusses the pros and cons of using early written records.

Published information is only as reliable as the competency of the observer and reporter. Thus, biographical sketches are included, portraying the twenty-one authors whose writings are most frequently quoted. Short histories of the six sporting journals and newspapers most frequently cited in the book—along with their availability in public libraries—are also discussed.

533 pages, 7 x 10, with 50 illustrations

Hardcover; 2010; ISBN: 0-89101-119-6 / 978-0-89101-119-4; $39.95

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William B. Krohn is a wildlife research biologist with the U.S. Geological Survey.  He is stationed at the University of Maine where he is the long-time leader of the Maine Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit.

Christopher L. Hoving was both a graduate student and a research associate in the Department of Wildlife Ecology, University of Maine, Orono, when he worked on this book. Hoving is currently the Endangered Species Coordinator for the Wildlife Division, Michigan Department of Natural Resources.

Krohn and Hoving continue to study historical patterns in the abundances and distributions of wildlife species, and are especially interested in the processes that have, and are, affecting the broad-scale distribution of wildlife populations.