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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



necessity for action of this kind is shown by 

 the recent capture in Colorado of a huge old 

 dog wolf with a definite record of having 

 killed about $3,000 worth of stock. Interesting 

 as wolves are, filling their place in the wilder- 

 ness, their habits bar them from being tol- 

 erated in civilized regions. 



PLAINS COYOTE, OR PRAIRIE WOLF 



(Canis latrans) 



Western North America is inhabited by a 

 peculiar group of small wolves, known as 

 coyotes, this being a Spanish corruption of the 

 Aztec name coyotl. They range from north- 

 ern Michigan, northern Alberta, and British 

 Columbia south to Costa Rica, and from west- 

 ern Iowa and Texas to the Pacific coast. As 

 a group they are animals of the open plains 

 and sparsely wooded districts, ranging from 

 sea-level to above timber-line on the highest 

 mountains. They are most at home on the 

 wide brushy or grassy plains of the western 

 United States and the table-lands of Mexico. 



Within their great area coyotes have devel- 

 oped several distinct species and a number of 

 geographic races, distinguished by differences 

 in size, color, and other characteristics. Some 

 attain a size almost equaling that of the gray 

 wolf, while others are much smaller. 



They are less courageous and have less of 

 the social instinct than gray wolves, and on 

 the rare occasions when they hunt in packs 

 they form, no doubt, a family party, including 

 the young of the year. They appear to pair 

 more or less permanently and commonly hunt 

 in couples. The young, sometimes numbering 

 as many as fourteen, are born in a burrow 

 dug in a bank, or in a den among broken rocks 

 and ledges. Young animals are readily tamed, 

 and it is entirely probable that some of the 

 dogs found by early explorers among western 

 Indians may have descended from coyotes. 



Coyotes are a familiar sight to travelers in 

 the wildest parts of the West. Here and there 

 one is seen trotting through the sagebrush or 

 other scrubby growth, or stopping to gaze 

 curiously at the intruder. If suddenly alarmed, 

 they race away across the plains with amazing 

 speed. At night their high-pitched, wailing 

 howls voice the lonely spirit of waste places. 



With the growth of settlement in the West 

 and the steady decrease of large and small 

 game, coyotes have become more and more de- 

 structive to poultry and all kinds of live stock. 

 As a result, every man's hand is against them, 

 reinforced by gun, trap, and poison. Despite 

 years of this persistent warfare, their acute 

 intelligence, aided by their extraordinary fe- 

 cundity, has enabled them to hold their own 

 over a great part of their original range. Their 

 depredations upon live stock have been so great 

 that many millions of dollars have been paid 

 in bounties for their destruction. 



This method of control has proved so in- 

 effective, however, that the Federal Govern- 

 ment has engaged in the task of suppressing 

 them, tegether with the other less numerous 



predatory animals of the West, and has placed 

 about 300 hunters in the field for this purpose. 

 The complete destruction of coyotes would, no 

 doubt, upset the balance of nature in favor of 

 rabbits, prairie-dogs, and other harmful ro- 

 dents, and thus result in a very serious in- 

 crease in the destruction of crops. 



The coyote supplies much interest and local 

 color to many dreary landscapes and has be- 

 come a prominent figure in the literature of 

 the West. _ There it is usually symbolic of 

 shifty cunning and fleetness of foot. What- 

 ever his faults, the coyote is an amusing and 

 interesting beast, and it is hoped that the day 

 of his complete disappearance from our wild 

 life may be far in the future. 



ARIZONA, OR MEARNS, COYOTE 

 (Canis mearnsi) 



The Arizona coyote is one of the smallest 

 and at the same time the most handsomely col- 

 ored of all its kind. Its home is limited to 

 the arid deserts on both sides of the lower 

 Colorado River, but mainly in southwestern 

 Arizona and adjacent parts of Sonora. This 

 is one of the hottest and most arid regions 

 of the continent, and for coyotes successfully 

 to hold their own there requires the exercise 

 of all the acute intelligence for which they 

 are noted. Instead of the winter blizzards 

 and biting cold encountered in the home of 

 the plains coyote, this southern species has 

 to endure the furnacelike heat of summer, 

 with occasional long periods of drought, when 

 water-holes become dry, plant life becomes dor- 

 mant, and a large part of the smaller mammal 

 life perishes. 



The Arizona coyote, like others of its kind, 

 is omnivorous. In seasons of plenty, rabbits, 

 kangaroo rats, pocket gophers, and many other 

 desert rodents cost only the pleasant excite- 

 ment of a short stalk. With the changing sea- 

 sons the flesh diet is varied by the sugary 

 mesquite beans, juicy cactus fruit, and other 

 products of thorny desert plants. Wherever 

 sufficient water is available for irrigation, small 

 communities of Indians or Mexicans are to 

 be found About such centers many coyotes 

 usually establish themselves and fatten on 

 poultry, green corn, melons, and other fruits 

 provided by the labor of man. Many of them 

 also patrol the shores of the Gulf of California 

 and feast upon the eggs of turtles and other 

 spoils of the sea. 



The arrival of men at a desert water-hole is 

 quickly known among these alert foragers, and 

 when the travelers arise at daybreak they are 

 likely to see tell-tale tracks on the sand where 

 one or two coyotes have walked in and out be- 

 tween their sleeping places and all about camp. 

 Shortly afterward the campers, if inexperi- 

 enced, may learn that bacon and other food 

 are contraband and always confiscated by these 

 dogs of the desert. These camp marauders 

 often stand among the bushes only 75 or 100 

 yards away in the morning and watch the in- 

 truders with much curiosity until some hostile 

 movement starts them off in rapid flight. 



