196 TEXAS NATURE OBSERVATIONS AND REMINISCENCES. 



to fight coyotes the coyote gener- 

 ally gets away or has the best of 

 the encounter. 



Kussian Wolf hounds have been 

 the most successful. These are 

 very speedy and are great fight- 

 ers. At present the majority of 

 sheepmen and livestock ranches 

 have packs of these dogs trained 

 especially to fight coyotes. Train- 

 ing of an almost technical nature 

 is necessary. In the first place 

 they have to be trained to find 

 the coyotes. Then they must be 

 trained to run them down and 

 lastly 'to ,kill them. The sheep- 

 man who has a well-trained pack 

 of Russian hounds generally has 

 but little trouble with coyotes. 

 The dogs kill some of the animals 

 and drive the others out of the 

 country to prey on other farmers 

 and sheepmen. 



Sturdy Dogs for the Chase 



Another good coyote dog is the 

 Russian stag hound. Good dogs 

 are also produced by mixing 

 breeds so as to combine the ele- 

 ments of various classes of dogs 

 for the particular purpose of 

 chasing and killing coyotes. For 

 instance, the greyhound will be 

 crossed with the Russian Wolf 

 or stag hound. This will combine 

 speed and ferocity. A wolfhound 

 may be mixed with bulldog to 

 combine additional ferocity and 

 fighting ability. The fox hound 

 is recognized as a good coyote 

 chaser, but he is not good at kill- 

 ing them. 



The main difficulty in fighting 

 with dogs is the hard strain nec- 

 essary on a chase. The rough 

 ranges and the rush and the heat 

 soon put a pack of dogs out of 

 commission. To avoid tiring out 

 the dogs they are sometimes 

 placed in cages on the backs of 

 wagons and released only when 

 coyote is run down and killed, the 

 dogs are placed back in the cage 

 to rest up for another; chase. 

 Sometimes a chase will last an 

 hour or more. The man in charge 



of the dogs will watch them 

 through field glasses and as soon 

 as the coyote is caught will hur- 

 ry to the scene and take the ani- 

 mal's hide. 



The Federal Government has 

 hired hunters in the field. They 

 slaughter hundreds of coyotes an- 

 nually with rifles. Still another 

 means of fighting the pest is to 

 find the whelping grounds and 

 kill the young. There are places 

 in the rough hills which afford 

 good dens for the animals. Here 

 Indians and others make good wa- 

 ges killing young coyotes and sell- 

 ing the pelts for bounty. Coyotes 

 breed rapidly. A female will 

 have from five to 11 whelps each 

 spring. A fev/ coyotes, for that 

 reason, will soon stock up a range 

 on which the coyotes have been 

 exterminated. 



The state bounty law, which be- 

 came effective in 1909, resulted 

 in the slaughter of thousands of 

 coyotes. In less than two years 

 a total of $137,080 has been paid 

 by the state and county as boun- 

 ties. Stockmen and sheepmen 

 say that the bounty law has made 

 a very noticable decrease in the 

 number of coyotes and in the 

 amount of damages. The pres- 

 ent law in Oregon is peculiar. The 

 terms are uiiusually strict the 

 person claiming a bounty being 

 required to turn over to the , 

 County Clerk in the county where 

 the coyote is killed the entire pelt, 

 including all the claws. The skin 

 must not be torn or mutilated. The 

 claimant must make affidavit that 

 the animal was killed within the 

 (iounty by the claimant and was 

 not helped or fostered in captiv- 

 ity within six months of the time 

 the bounty is claimed. A bounty 

 of $1.50 is paid for each pelt. 



Neighboring states also have 

 bounty laws but they differ ma- 

 terially from those of Oregon. 

 For that reason there is consider- 

 able trouble, sometimes persons 

 killing coyotes in one state, ship- 



