In approaching ranch buildings either by day or by night the coyote conies from the leeward side and with great caution. Once satisfied that no danger lurks in the shadows, it becomes exceedingly hold. George A. Coleman, formerly a member of the Biological Survey, wrote from London, Nemaha County, Nebr.:
Depredations by wolves here upon henroosts and pigpens are of frequent occurrence. I have observed them several times. They come with a dash into the yard, take a chicken by the neck, and are gone before anyone can stop them. In the same way they visit the pigpens and take the young pigs away from the mother. In one instance they made way with eight 6-weeks-old pigs in one night. At another time two of them attacked a pig which would have weighed 75 pounds, and had they not been stopped by dog's would probably have killed it.
Few of the mammals of the farm are exempt from coyote raids. Even house cats, roaming far from home in search of rodents or birds, become victims. A correspondent of Forest and Stream, writing from Shirley Basin, Wyo., October 7, 1896, says:
I live on a ranch, and we are somewhat troubled by field mice and mountain rats, and so we must keep cats. We have them, but we do not keep them long, because they are caught by coyotes. Within a few months I have lost four cats in this way.
The coyote has been known to kill the young of most farm animals—colts, calves, pigs, lambs, and goats. Colts are seldom killed, because the dam can usually protect them. Calves are taken only when the mother cow is feeding at a distance or has gone for water. The coyotes lie watching in the grass until this opportunity comes. Sometimes older animals are killed. Ranchmen in Oklahoma told the writer that in winter yearling cattle in good condition are sometimes killed by coyotes. To accomplish this two or more of them must hunt together, and get the victim separated from the herd.
Capt. P. M. Thorne, writing to the Biological Survey from Fort Lyon, Colo.. January 4, 1887, says:
Old cattlemen who have lived here nearly all their lives agree in saying that the coyotes kill cattle, even full-grown ones. They say that they have seen them at their work, which is done in packs; they surround an animal and keep up a constant nipping at its legs until it falls from weakness and loss of blood.
In July. 1893, at Farmington, Utah, Vernon Bailey saw two coyotes chasing calves and yearlings about a pasture, evidently trying to separate one from the lot. He notes that in June. 1889, at St. Thomas, Nev., coyotes killed a hog that weighed about 100 pounds.