
Approximately 3 man-months in each of 5 consecutive years were 
spent in tagging, 2 months in spring denning and 1 month in late summer, 
fall, or winter trapping. As shown in Figure, 1, 19 coyotes were marked 
and released - 293 within the Park, and 125 in adjoining areas. Of the 
19, 325 were young of the year and 94 were older animals, The preponder- 
ance of young animals may be explained by the fact that spring denning 
produced only pups for tagging, whereas trapping in the fall or winter 
resulted in the capture of young and older coyotes in about equal numbers, 
Two hundred and sixty coyotes were tagged with relative ease 
in the Park, and 90 in outside areas in the April to September period. 
When it became evident that the predominant direction of fall and winter 
movement of these animals was down-country to the north, efforts were 
made to tag the drifters during the winter at the lower altitudes. Real 
difficulty was experienced in this phase because the only feasible method 
of capturing adult coyotes alive was through trapping, and in the cold, 
mid-winter weather the trapped foot quickly froze. Most coyotes would 
then chew off the frozen foot. A solution was furnished when returns 
showed that many of the animals moved down-country as early as October 
and November. Sixty-nine eventually were marked and released along the 
north Park boundary from October to March, mostly during the first 2 
months of that period - 33 in the Park within 5 miles of the boundary 
and 36 in contiguous outside areas. 
Recovery 
There are, at this writing, 178 usable returns on which to 
base conclusions. Since of these coyotes were recovered twice, the 
figure of 17) animals involved amounts to 41.5 per cent of those tagged. 
In addition, 3) returns were discarded because the animals were taken as 
young pups, or so soon after release that the records are of little 
significance. Ten other coyotes were known to have been killed with the 
tags missing and 5 with tags in place, but their numbers were not reported. 
There were actually 227 knowm recoveries involving 207, or 49.l percent, of 
the 419 coyotes originally tagged. One hundred and ninety-five of these 
are known to have been killed, and no doubt most of the remaining 22) 
animals have disappeared by this time through natural mortality, predator—- 
control work outside the Park, or other causes. A few scattered returns 
may be received over a period of several years and may furnish interesting 
records on longevity and unusual movements. 
Although longevity records will be more complete when the flow 
of returns has stopped, the recovery intervals as set forth in Table l 
may be of interest. The records show that 38.1 percent of those tagged 
as pups and 62.8 percent of the adults have been recovered. The differ= 
ence may be due to (1) higher natural mortality among the younger animals; 
(2) more of the pups being lost through drifting into areas where 1080 was 
used in coyote control; and (3) even if recovered at the more distant 
points, less chance of tag return since information about the $10 reward 
was not generally known there. The higher incidence of recovery of 
coyotes tagged in 1948 and 199 no doubt is due to more intensive hunting 
during those years. Most of the-animals were re-taken during their first 
year after tagging, and the longer they were at liberty the less chance 
there was of their tags being reported. 
4 
