Coyotes are abundant in most parts of their range, except the extreme north and the more thickly populated regions where waste lands are scarce. It is, however, on the plains of the western part of the United States that they come most closely in contact with the advancing tide of settlement. The establishment of pioneer homes throughout the country has always resulted in restricting the numbers of the larger wolves, which have gradually become extinct over large areas in the eastern and middle parts of the United States where they were formerly abundant. Not so with the coyote. Except in a few thickly settled regions, it has thrived upon civilization and is practically as numerous as it was before settlements began. Indeed, in many parts of the West coyotes are said to be increasing in spite of a constant warfare against them.
The introduction of domestic birds and mammals has provided the coyotes with an additional food supply always available and entirely precluding any danger of starvation. Then, too, the animals are far too suspicious to be easily destroyed by the use of traps or poisons. Old hunters of the Plains have informed the writer that while it was comparatively easy to poison large numbers of the gray wolf, the coyote was not an easy victim and usually avoided both the baited traps and the poisoned buffalo carcasses.
The plains east of the Rocky Mountains and the higher plateaus of the Great Basin west of the mountains are especially adapted to the wants of the coyote. Cultivated areas are far apart: stock ranges are extensive; tall grasses, weeds, cactuses, and sagebrush afford excellent hiding places; rabbits, prairie dogs, ground squirrels, and other small animals are plentiful; and, when these natural resources of the country fail, sheep and young calves furnish abundant food.
In nearly all the Western States the efforts of ranchmen to destroy the coyote have been supplemented by laws authorizing the payment of bounties from public funds. Some of these laws have been in operation for a score of years or even more and, except locally, no diminution in the general numbers of the animals has resulted. In some parts of Mexico where the natives have for many years practiced systematic poisoning, the coyote is becoming rare, but in most sections of its range it is either increasing or no substantial decrease has been observed.
The State of Kansas, where settlements are comparatively old and where man's warfare against the coyote has been long continued, affords an excellent illustration of the animal's ability to maintain its numbers under seemingly adverse circumstances. Most of the counties of the State have for many years paid bounties for killing coyotes, and conditions have been reached where there is little fluctuation in the total amount paid from year to year. The returns of the animals killed for the fiscal twelve months from July 1, 1903, to June 30, 1904, show that nearly 20,000 scalps were presented for bounty in the State.
The following is a table, by counties, of the number of coyotes on which bounties were paid during the year above specified. Of the 11 missing counties, 10—Cherokee. Comanche. Finney. Grant, Haskell, Kearney, Morton, Seward, Stevens, and Wyandotte—paid no bounties, and 1, Doniphan, made no report. The bounty in all cases is $1 for each animal killed.
Number of coyotes on which bounties were paid in Kansas
from July 1, 1903, to June 30. 1904.