
tag recovered. A year later this was increased to $10, paid jointly by 
the Park County (Montana) Rod and Gun Club and the Montana Fish and Game 
Commission. Payment of the reward, to be continued even after the study 
was formally completed, was administered by Vice-chairman R. A. Hamilton 
of the Committee, and he and Secretary George H, Sern did everything 
possible to expedite the return of tags. Ranchers of the Yellowstone 
Valley cooperated in tagging and in the regulation of coyote-control 
methods to permit the recovery of tags; their willingness to risk depre= 
dations that otherwise might have been prevented represents a real 
contribution. For two summers the Montana District of the Branch of 
Predator and Rodent Control, Fish and Wildlife Service, assigned an 
extra trapper to southern Park County adjacent to Yellowstone National 
Park to aid in the summer recovery of tagged animals. Without this 
assistance the data would have been gathered much more slowly and would 
have been far less complete. Although the tagging of coyotes was 
principally the work of the laboratory, as was the analysis of the 
returns, the volums of returns has been made possible largely through 
the contributions of others. 
Tagging 
To determine the extent and nature of coyote movements into 
and out of Yellowstone Park, these animals were tagged not only in the 
Park but beyond the boundary to the north as well. Likewise, recovery 
of the tagged animals was not limited to the outside areas but was 
vigorously conducted by supervised shooting inside the Park, The coyotes 
to be tagged were taken as pups from dens in the spring, or were captured 
during other seasons with padded steel traps. A few animals taken by the 
latter method,were unfit for tagging because of injuries and were destroyed 
immediately. Although an attempt was made to release only those coyotes 
which would not be permanently disabled, it was not always possible to 
determine how a trap wound would heal. Some bad flesh wounds would mend 
completely, whereas a few coyotes with apparently lesser injuries would 
later be lames, sometimes losing toes or the entire foot. The number of 
animals so handicapped, however, was relatively small. 
A numbered aluminum tag, with printed directions for return 
to Denver, was attached to one ear of the coyote. At least 5 per cent 
of the tags were lost by the animals. Some tags, as judged by a scarred 
notch in the animal's ear, were torn out in fights or by becoming snagged; 
others seemingly came unclamped, but this loss seemed traceable to 
defective pliers used in setting some of the tags. To permit distant 
identification and the recovery only of tagged coyotes in the Park, the 
tip of the untagged ear of each animal was removed. In the Park, the 
tag was placed in the left ear and the right ear was cropped. With 
coyotes trapped outside the Park, a reverse procedure was used. The 
ear-cropping probably was no more painful to the animal and healed even 
faster than the incision made by the tag. 
