COYOTE CONTROL BY MEANS OF DEN HUNTING 7 



When the pups aro about 8 to 10 weeks old the dens are abandoned, 

 and the entire laniily roves about, i-emainino^ together until early fall. 



REMOVING WHELPS FROM DENS 



The digging necessary to capture pups depends largely on the nature 

 of the soil and the location of the den (fig. 2, B). Some dens are so 

 shallow that little digging is required; others cannot be dug out; and 

 some burrows lead straight into a bank or under a hardpan ledge. 

 Much work can be avoided hj running a shovel handle or long stick 

 as far as possible into the hole to ascertain its direction and then 

 digging a pit down to the den instead of following the burrow. Where 

 digging is extremely difficult, the animals can be destroyed by the use 

 of calcium cyanide gas as later described. If pups can be seen back 

 in a den but cannot be reached in digging, a forked stick or a wire so 

 twisted as to catch in their fur has been employed to save labor; but 

 if the den or burrow branches and turns, such an instrument is never 

 wholly satisfactory, as some of the whelps are likely to be missed. 



Before digging is begun, the den entrance should be blocked to 

 prevent the escape of the mother coyote, should she be inside the den. 

 When the pups are of suckling age she is often in the den with them, 

 but when they are old enough to play and be fed outside she seldom 

 goes into it. It is difficult to tell her whereabouts by her tracks, as 

 she backs out of the den unless disturbed and the tracks all appear as 

 if made in entering. 



Pups are wobbly on their legs when only 2 or 3 weeks old; so if a 

 pit 18 inches deep' is dug just outside the mouth of the den, they will 

 fall into it when they attempt to crawl out of the den and can easily 

 be captured. 



Smoking the young out of the den is not satisfactory as a rule, but 

 is sometimes successful. A good smoker can be made by soldering 

 a half-inch hose coupling to the spout of a bellows-operated bee smoker 

 and using sulfur and pieces of burlap as fuel. A piece of garden hose 

 about 10 feet long can be attached and worked down into the den 

 close to the pups, preferably behind them. The operator should stand 

 back from the mouth of the den, armed with a club to dispatch the 

 pups as they come out. Throwing a handful of calcium cyanide into 

 a den and stopping the hole with dirt is an effective method of fumiga- 

 tion, but this chemical niust be handled with extreme care — as a rule 

 by experienced workers only — as it is also dangerous to man. 



' A small dog trained to go into dens and bring out the whelps is 

 useful. Such dogs are scarce, but with careful handling, the proper 

 breed (wire-haired fox terrier or other terrier) soon learns and enjoys 

 this work. Any dog, however, is a great help, as the parent coyotes 

 become much alarmed if it nears their den and often set up a howl or 

 series of barks and yelps, thus betraying the fact that a den is near. 

 A small dog is preferable, and one that runs rabbits and hunts several 

 hundred yards from the hunter is better than one that follows at the 

 horse's heels. Coyotes are likely to give wide berth to a large dog, 

 but will sometimes fight and chase a small one, thus presenting a 

 good target for shots, particularly when the coyote goes some dis- 

 tance from the den to fight the intruder. For several days after the 

 den has been destroyed females that have lost their whelps fre- 

 quently fight or chase any dog that comes near. 



