PROTECTING SHEEP FROM DOGS AND WOLVES 379 



which there are several. They are furnished with a 

 pointed muzzle, erect ears and a bushy tail. 



Timber wolves were originally distributed over all 

 parts of the continent that produced forest. With the 

 settlement of the country they continually recede. In the 

 eastern and central states they are now entirely extinct, 

 but in various areas near large tracts of forest they are 

 still a source of considerable loss. This is especially true 

 of northern Michigan, northern Wisconsin and northern 

 Minnesota and of much of the range country, where their 

 former prey, the buffalo, is not found any more. They 

 frequently make their dens in lonely places in the open 

 country. Coyotes inhabit all the range country from the 

 Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean and from Athabasca 

 on the north to Costa Rica on the south. In nearly all 

 the range country they are as numerous as when the 

 country was first occupied, and in some areas have in^ 

 creased, notwithstanding the efforts that have been made 

 to destroy them. The explanation is found in the in- 

 creased food supplies which civilization has made accessi- 

 ble to them. 



The idea that forest reserves in the range states are 

 largely accountable for the presence of wolves is not true, 

 as in the mountain areas they are not found, save in the 

 summer season where live stock are driven up to higher 

 altitudes to graze. They breed in the foothills. Fre- 

 quently the dens are located near washed-out places along 

 the sides of streams or under rocks in side hills. Some- 

 times the dens are enlarged from holes made by badgers 

 or other wild animals. In many instances the view from 

 elevations near the dens extends over a large area, hence 

 the approach of an intruder is almost impossible without 

 discovery. The breeding season varies with the climate, 

 but in the central west it occurs in April, and by August 

 the young wolves are able to shift for themselves. 

 Wolves breed but once a year. The period of gestation 



