794 Life-histories of Northern Animals 



making numerous observations, I conclude that in the sum- 

 mer a township (6 miles square) is more than ample hunting- 

 ground for a pair of Coyotes. In winter, perhaps, twice as 

 much is needed, in the north, and beyond this they never go 

 of their own free will; outside this limit is foreign country 

 to them. 



ABUN- But they do not occupy any area to the exclusion of their 



kind; probably the ranges of at least half a dozen pairs overlap 

 on the same hunting-ground, which assumes a general popula- 

 tion of 10 to the township. These calculations would, if 

 correct, give us a Coyote population in Manitoba of 12,000. 

 Or, approaching the question from another view, in 1904 the 

 Manitoba government paid bounties on 4,541 Prairie-wolves 

 killed in the Province. The testimony of all observers is that 

 the Wolves are increasing in spite of this destruction, therefore 

 the annual increase is greater than the annual kill. This would 

 presuppose an original population of at least 5,000, which we 

 may safely accept as a minimum of Coyotes in Manitoba, and 

 of course they are condensed in the south-western half of the 

 country. 



That this is a low estimate the following shows: In 

 Shields' Magazine for April, 1904,^ Jack Comegys describes a 

 recent Coyote drive at Evans, Colo.; about 20 square miles 

 (half a township) were included, and some 40 Coyotes rounded 

 up; that is, 80 to the township, or say 2 to the square mile. 

 Further, according to the United States Biological Survey,' the 

 State of Kansas (81,700 square miles), in the year ending 

 July I, 1904, paid bounties on 20,000 Coyote scalps, but their 

 numbers were not perceptibly diminished; at least as many — 

 the Colorado evidence would say even double as many — 

 were left, which would make the population above i to 2 

 square miles, or 20 to the township. 



If anything like these rates of population prevail over their 

 entire territory, we shall have a total of fully 1,000,000 of the 



»P. 215. 



° D. E. Lanlz, Hull. No. 20, Biol. Surv. U. S. Dcp. Agr., 1905, p. 9. 



