84 



WILD ANIMALS OF GLACIEE NATIONAL PARK. 



Along tho higher trails their sign "was almost entirely of goat 

 wool and sheep hair, showing what had been their principal prey, 

 but in some cases deer hair was also detected, and in the vallej^s 

 it was the main refuse from their food. In places where their 

 tracks were most abundant the sheep and goats were usually scarce, 

 and evidently the almost inaccessible clitfs to which these animals 

 resort during the daytime are their only protection from constant 

 attacks of the coyotes. In the evening botht the sheep and goats 

 come down into the little alpine meadows to feed, and if not con- 

 stantly harassed they would undoubtedly remain at much lower 

 levels during the daytime than at present, when they would be of 

 more general interest to the tourists. Their only safety seems to be 

 in getting on the narrowest, most elevated shelves of the cliffs, where 

 pursuit would be difficult and dangerous, and where the naked rocks 

 arc too rough and sharp for the bootless feet of carnivores. To save 



their feet the coyotes keep 

 very largely along the 

 trails or in the meadows 

 where the ground is soft, 

 and for this reason they 

 are easily trapped. I was 

 told that last winter one 

 trapper caught 22 on Flat 

 Top Mountain where they 

 pass over from the "Water- 

 ton to- the McDonald 

 Creek valley. It would 

 not be difficult for one or 

 two reliable and skillful trappers, kept on the job throughout the 

 year, to keep the number of coyotes in the park to a practically 

 harmless minimum. 



Mountain Red Fox: Vidpcs; fulva inocroura Baird. — The moun- 

 tain red or cross foxes are occasionally seen in Glacier Park, and 

 in all their various color phases can be readily recognized by the 

 large white tips of the bushy tails. They vary in color from the 

 yellow red to a very much darker' yellowish brown, with often a pro- 

 nounced dark stripe across the shoulders, which gives this phase the 

 name of cross fox. J. E. Lewis, at Lake McDonald, had some skins 

 of the pure red, but more of varying shades of cross, and one that 

 was showing the white tips on a very dark underfur that would have 

 been classed as a silver-gray, except for a little rusty on the sides of 

 the neck and flanks. I could get no record of the pure black fox 

 from the park area, but this fully melanistic phase is so rare that 

 very few are taken anywhere in the Rocky Mountain region. All 



Photo, by J. A. Loring. ICIIM, 



Fig. 15. — Mountain red (ox in Wind River JIouu 

 tains, Wyoming. 



