382 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA — EXPERIMENT STATION 



The evidence given in the accompanying table will be seen to be 

 for the most part favorable to the coyote. The evidence now given is 

 against the coj-ote. Mr. Edward Shock of Hayfoi-k, Trinity County, 

 reports having seen two coyotes run down and catch a young deer. 

 Stomach contents of six coyotes trapped at this locality consisted 

 largely of meat, bones and hair of deer. A male coyote trapped Janu- 

 ary 31, 1918, by C. 0. Fisher, 14 miles south of Douglas, Trinity 

 County, had considerable deer meat and hair in its stomach. A large 

 male coyote was shot while in the act of attacking a flock of sheep by 

 Gabriel Marcelliu on August 7, 1917, at McAfee Meadows, 11,600 feet, 

 in the White Mountains, Mono County. In San Diego County a 

 coyote observed hy the author jumped up and snatched ripe fruit 

 from the lower branches of a prune tree. Ripe grapes and water- 

 melons were commonly eaten by coj-otes in this locality. Such in- 

 stances, both favorable to and against the coyote, could be given in 

 numbers, but the important point to remember is that coyotes may 

 be beneficial at one season and harmful at another. However, any 

 fair estimate of the economic value of any wild animal in a given 

 locality must be based on aggregate food material taken for the year. 

 A coyote may be a real asset in a locality where gophers are working 

 in alfalfa fields. The same coyote would be a detriment in a poultry- 

 raising section. The economic statu>s of the coyote may therefore be 

 a question of locality, as well as season. 



BREEDING HABITS 



The breeding season of the coyote varies considerably with locality. 

 Those living in the low warm vallej s breed several weeks earlier than 

 those living in the mountains. Mating has been noted as early as the 

 middle of January and as late as the first of May. February and 

 March represent the main mating season. 



The period of gestation in tlie coj^ote is nine weeks or 63 days, the 

 same as in the dog. 



Normally but one litter of from three to nine young, usually six 

 or seven, are raised each season. Second litters, however, are not 

 unknown. A female coyote, taken by the author in the vicinity of 

 Bakersfield, Kern County, on May 6, 1918, showed plainly that she 

 had nursed young within the previous twenty-four hours, and there 

 was still an abundance of milk in the milk glands. This nursing 

 female contained seven small embryos each less than an inch in length. 

 This specimen (No. 28722, Mus. Vert. Zool.) affords a reasonable 

 basis for the statement that two litters may sometimes be raised in 

 one year. 



