26 Mary K. Clark, David S. Lee, John B. Funderburg, Jr. 



South Carolina. Excerpts from part of this chapter (see Appendix to 

 this paper) provide some anecdotal insights into the nature of pocosins 

 as a refuge for game animals, the behavior of pursued Bobcats, and the 

 perpetuation of eyewitness accounts of "black" panthers in the Southeast. 



Artiodactyla: Hoofed Mammals 



Odocoileus virginianus virginianus (Zimmerman), White-tailed Deer. 

 White-tailed Deer were observed in all habitats and at all study sites. 

 Deer are now widely distributed throughout the Coastal Plain, although 

 from the turn of the century through the 1930s they were reduced to a 

 few remnant herds confined to the pocosin areas of the Albemarle- 

 Pamlico Peninsula and to the Green Swamp area. Restocking and pro- 

 tection have been successful and the adaptability of deer is seen in their 

 presence in 12 of the 13 habitats presented in Table 1. 



Capra hircus (Linnaeus), Domestic Goat. Feral goats are quite com- 

 mon in the low shrub pocosins in southern Dare County. Land owners 

 queried by us were not aware of their origin or how long they have been 

 present. Hill (1973) reported on some goats "gone wild" in the Dismal 

 Swamp in Virginia. We have not included them in Tables 1 or 2. 



Recently Extirpated Mammals 



Canis sp., Wolf. Based on place names and bounty records of the 

 early 1700's through the 1800's, there is no doubt that wolves ranged 

 throughout eastern North Carolina. There is some question, in our 

 minds, however, whether the wolves were Canis lupus, the Gray Wolf, 

 or Canis niger, the Red Wolf, or both. The Red Wolf was found at least 

 as far north as Charleston, South Carolina (records at the Charleston 

 Museum), and there is no reason to suspect that it did not range into 

 coastal North Carolina as well. Pocosins and Carolina bays would 

 appear to make ideal haunts for Red Wolves. Elliot (1918) noted that 

 wolves were almost extinct in the maritime sections of the Carolinas and 

 Georgia in 1867. We are not aware of any bounties paid on wolves in 

 the Coastal Plain of North Carolina after the mid- 1700s. As indicated 

 by records in the North Carolina State Archives, in 1721 Chowan 

 County paid bounties on "bobcats, panthers and wolves this year." 



Places named for wolves in eastern North Carolina include Wolf 

 Bay, Bladen County; Wolf House Point, Currituck County; Wolf Pit 

 Creek, Hoke County; Wolf Pit Township, Richmond County; Wolf- 

 scape Township, Duplin County; and Wolf Swamp, Onslow County. 



Felis concolor ssp., Panther. We know of no Atlantic Coastal Plain 

 specimen records that would indicate the subspecific status of Felis con- 



