The Animals of Virginia at the Time of European Discovery

raccoons were common before Europeans arrived in the 1500's - and are still common today
raccoons were common before Europeans arrived in the 1500's - and are still common today

When Europeans reached the Chesapeake Bay in the 1500's, they encountered Native Americans who had domesticated one animal. Dogs had migrated with the Paleo-Indians into North America. The ancestors of the indigenous dogs were wolves that had been domesticated in Asia (and perhaps the Middle East, in two separate places initially) about 15,000 years ago.

It is possible that first people to reach the Atlantic Ocean 20,000 years ago, when sea level was 400' lower and before the Chesapeake Bay had formed, arrived without dogs as companions, hunting assistants, and food. Those first immigrants may have kayaked along the Pacific Ocean coastline to bypass the ice sheet. Later arrivals from Beringea, moving through a gap between melting ice sheets on a southward migration into modern-day Montana, may have brought domesticated dogs later.

Archeologists have excavated remains of 117 dogs at Weyanoke Old Town near modern Hopewell. The site is the largest collection of indigenous dogs found to date in North America. Analysis of DNA from an indigenous dog skeleton at Jamestown reveals it was related to the population upstream near the Appomattox River.

many images of Pocahontas are fanciful - but it is realistic to picture dogs with Native Americans when Jamestown was founded in 1607
many images of Pocahontas are fanciful - but it is realistic to picture dogs with Native Americans when Jamestown was founded in 1607
Source: Elmer Boyd Smith, The Story of Pocahontas and Captain John Smith (1906)

Almost all modern dogs are genetically descended from the animals brought by colonists; the indigenous dogs disappeared from the landscape. To the English, the Native American dogs resembled foxes. In 1612 William Strachey documented one distinctive characteristic - the dogs were "barkless":1

The doggs of the Country are like their woulves, and cannot barke but howle.

in 1585, John White documented dogs in the town of Pomeiock
in 1585, John White documented dogs in the town of Pomeiock
Source: Smithsonian Institution, The Town of Pomeiock (oil painting by Spencer Nichols)

The indigenous dogs were about the size of a modern beagle or springer spaniel, weiging around 35 pounds. The English brought dogs about the size of shepherds, weighing 50-70 pounds. They gave Powhatan a white greyhound.

To the English, dogs were a potential food source in times of great hunger. When the early colonists at Roanoke Island explored too far upriver in 1585 and ran out of food, they ate two mastiffs which had been brought across the Atlantic Ocean. Similarly, when the Jamestown experienced the "Starving Time" in the winter of 1609-10, they used indigenous as well as their imported dogs as a food source. In contrast, the Native Americans in Virginia are thought to have used their dogs as sentinels and hunting assistants but not as food.

The Jamestown settlers viewed the indigenous dogs, with served as camp guards as well as hunting assistants and companions, as mongrels. There were no separate breeds until the colonists arrived. John Smith and Christopher Newport sought to impress Powhatan in 1608 by giving him a white greyhound. That distinctively different dog would have been an obvious prestige item that helped the paramount chief to impress others.

After Pocahontas was kidnapped in 1613, Powhatan asked for restitution that included another English dog. By 1619, however, trading dogs with the Native Americans that might improve the quality of their stock was no longer acceptable. The first General Assembly in 1619 passed legislation saying:2

That no man do sell or give any of the greater howes to the Indians, or any English dog of quality, as a mastive, greyhound, blood hound, land or water spaniel, or any other dog or bitch whatsoever, of the English race.

John Smith wrote fascinating reports of the plant and animal life he found in the New World in the early 1600's, and the "time of discovery" extended into the 1700's as Europeans gradually reached the Appalachian plateau in far southwestern Virginia. Speculation was slowly replaced by observation.

John Lederer described seeing a mountain lion killing a deer, in his journal of a 1669 trip up the Pamunkey River to the Blue Ridge:3

Thravelling thorow the Woods, a Doe seized by a wild Cat crossed our way; the miserable creature being even spent and breathless with the burden and cruelty of her rider, who having fastened on her shoulder, left not sucking out her bloud until she sunk under him: which one of the Indians perceiving, let flie a lucky Arrow, which piecing him thorow the belly, made him quit his prey already slain, and turn with a terrible grimas at us; but his strength and spirits failing him, we escaped his revenge, which had certainly ensued, were not his wound mortal.

This creature is something bigger than our English Fox, of a reddish grey colour, and in figure every way agreeing with an ordinary Cat; fierce, ravenous and cunning: for finding the Deer (upon which they most delight to prey) too swift for them, they watch upon branches of trees, and as they walk or feed under, jump down upon them. The Fur of the wilde Cat, though not very fine, is yet esteemed for its vertue in taking away cold Aches and Pains, being worn next to the body; their flesh, though rank as a Dogs, is eaten by the Indians.

State biologists have not documented any mountain lions that may still remain in Virginia, despite regular reports of sightings. The only wildcats today are the much smaller bobcat and the large number of feral pets abandoned by their owners.

Deer are more common today than when the Europeans first reached Virginia, because the habitats have been so heavily altered by farming and then housing development.

One species that was most obvious to the early discoverers was the passenger pigeon. These are now extinct, eliminated not only from Virginia but from the face of the earth. The last one to die, named Martha, has been stuffed and can be seen in a zoo.

modern coyote footprint on Manassas Battlefield National Park (raised pad in middle is uncommon for domestic dogs that walk on hard surfaces)
modern coyote footprint on Manassas Battlefield National Park (raised pad in middle is uncommon for domestic dogs that walk on hard surfaces)

Bison/Buffalo in Virginia

The Vegetation of Virginia at the Time of European Discovery

Whales in Virginia

References

1. "Earliest American dog hints pets accompanied first people in Americas," New Scientist, February 24, 2021, https://www.newscientist.com/article/2268851-earliest-american-dog-hints-pets-accompanied-first-people-in-americas/; "Archaeologists Discover Oldest Domesticated Dog Remains in Americas," Smithsonian Magazine, December 15, 2021, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/archaeologists-discover-oldest-domesticated-dog-remains-in-americas-180979222/; "Jamestown colonists killed and ate the dogs of Indigenous Americans," Live Science, April 8, 2022, https://www.livescience.com/jamestown-colonists-ate-indigenous-dogs; "A Canine Companion So Nice It (Maybe) Evolved Twice," New York Times, June 29, 2022, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/29/science/dogs-wolves-genetics-evolution.html; "Bones of ancient native dogs found at Jamestown," Washington Post, December 29, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2022/12/29/dogs-native-jamestown-discovered/ (last checked December 29, 2022)
2. "Surviving Jamestown: Researchers found that early colonists likely ate dogs to survive," The Virginian-Pilot, June 29, 2024, https://www.pilotonline.com/2024/06/29/surviving-jamestown-researchers-found-that-early-colonists-likely-ate-dogs-to-survive/; S.T. Andrews, J. Bowen, S.C. Atkins, "More Than Just Food: What 25 Years of Faunal Analysis Has Revealed about Jamestown, Virginia," International Journal of Historical Archaeology, 2024, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10761-024-00742-w; Ariane E. Thomas, Matthew E. Hill Jr., Leah Stricker, Michael Lavin, David Givens, Alida de Flamingh, Kelsey E. Witt, Ripan S. Malhi, Andrew Kitchen, "The Dogs of Tsenacomoco: Ancient DNA Reveals the Presence of Local Dogs at Jamestown Colony in the Early Seventeenth Century," American Antiquity, May 22, 2024, https://www.doi.gov/10.1017/aaq.2024.25 (last checked August 20, 2024)
3. John Lederer, John, The discoveries of John Lederer, in three several marches from Vriginia, to the west of Carolina, and other parts of the continent: begun in March 1669, and ended in September 1670. Together with a general map of the whole territory which he traversed, printed by J. C. for S. Heyrick, 1672, p.10, https://archive.org/details/discoveriesofjoh00leder (last checked January 12, 2022)

John James Audubon painted an indigenous dog found on Great Plains, living near teepees rather than the yi-hakins in Virginia
John James Audubon painted an indigenous dog found on Great Plains, living near teepees rather than the yi-hakins in Virginia
Source: Wikipedia, Hare Indian Dog

in 1670, Augustine Herrman speculated that there were Tygers, Bears and other Devouringe Creatures south of the James River
in 1670, Augustine Herrman speculated that there were "Tygers, Bears and other Devouringe Creatures" south of the James River
Source: John Carter Brown Library, Virginia and Maryland As it is planted and Inhabited this present Year 1670 (by Augustine Herrman, 1670)


Habitats and Species of Virginia
Virginia Places