Wolf and Coyote Trapping: An Up-to-Date Wolf Hunter's Guide / Giving the Most Successful Methods of Experienced "Wolfers" for Hunting and Trapping These Animals, Also Gives Their Habits in Detail.

by A. R. Harding

Among the mountains the coyote is rarely found, though since the coming of the white man with his flocks they have multiplied considerably in several localities even to such an alarming degree that ranches have found it unprofitable to further attempt to raise sheep.

The coyote of the plains is considerably smaller than the wolf, being intermediate in size between the red fox and the grey wolf. It has the short body, bushy tail, rounded head and pointed nose of the fox and might easily be mistaken for one. Its general color is fulvous, grizzled with black and white hairs and lighter underneath a color remarkable for its ability to blend with the brown and grey, that the arid Plains are clothed in the greater part of the year.

Although well proportioned and being where food is usually plentiful, it rarely fattens up, and almost invariably presents a hungry, half fed appearance. Its food consists mainly of small rodents and birds, such as it can dig up from the ground, or waylay by cat-like maneuvers. Preferring to live on a diet of such animals as it is enabled to capture and kill, it resorts to many schemes and tricks to satisfy its desire for fresh meat. Field mice and gophers living in shallow burrows, fall an easy prey to its diggings. Prairie dogs and cotton tails are waylaid at their place of refuge, and grouse and small birds are pounced upon when they venture too near its place of ambush.

Not always, however, is the coyote enabled to capture its game by such easy means, and when it chooses to dine on jack rabbit, it finds it requires all the power of perseverance and endurance it is capable of mustering up to overtake that fleet creature. As it happens, it is often obliged after a long chase to give up its quarry for a humbler meal. Probably it then decides it is not worth while to hunt the jack alone today, for it knows that if it can persuade one of its comrades to join the chase, Mr. Jack is doomed. When hunting in pairs, they give chase in turns, each stopping to rest in turn, thereby having a double cinch on the poor jack rabbit which is compelled to run continually until exhausted.

In the winter when birds are scarce and the small mammals have hibernated or are huddled away under the snow and frozen ground, the coyote is often sorely pressed for food, and he is then forced to content himself with gnawing off an existence from the frozen carcass of a horse or cow that has died probably months before. His ingenuity of last summer is replaced by a stubborn perseverance, which keeps him traveling day and night in search of scraps of food.

In the spring after the young are born, the bitch is kept busy from morn till night trying to satisfy the hunger of her growling litter of pups, and in her frantic efforts to do so, scruples little on running down and killing a stray sheep or an unprotected calf or colt. When, however, this large prey fails and the smaller game proves insufficient, she is again forced to the humbler larder of some carcass she has discovered on one of her many haunts.

Coyotes are not adepts at burrowing, yet, some credit must be accorded them for work in this line. They often follow up mice and gophers for several feet under the sod, though it remains for the female to exhibit the powers of burrowing possessed by her tribe. In late winter in the southern part of her range, and in the early spring in the northern part, she selects a safe location, usually under a boulder or a ledge of rock, or on the face of a rounded point in a coulee or gulch, from where she may keep a sharp lookout, and sets to work to dig a home for her prospective family. Large quantities of dirt are deposited at the mouth of the burrow, yet this amount is remarkably small when compared with the tunnel from which it is removed, which is often twenty feet or more in length and wide enough to admit a boy, or even in some cases a medium sized man.

At the end of the burrow, which is usually elevated, is an enlargement, in which a litter of from three to eight are brought forth. These are blind and helpless, yet after the first day of their earthly career it seems to become necessary that they exercise both their lungs and limbs, and except for the time that is spent in actual sleep, they keep up a persistent scrambling, one over another, and at the same time a constant growling and whining. The cries of the young and the shuffling about of awkward feet can often be distinctly heard at the mouth of the burrow. This is one of the tests the "wolfer" relies on when he has made the find of a burrow with fresh signs.

As soon as the little ones' eyes are open and their legs grow stronger, they begin to travel, first up and down the burrow, a little further each time, until the mouth is reached. Later on, during the warm sunny days they may be seen playing on the hillside near their home like so many kittens. Before they are half grown the fond mother leads her family out for its initial trip, usually to the nearest watering place, to which they subsequently make regular trips.

It is a pleasing sight to see the young coyotes in playful antics jump up the mother's side and play with her tail as they follow her or chase each other around the bushes. As soon as the young are old enough they are taken out and taught the rules and regulations of the hunt, and long before they are full grown they take an active part in the chase.