Part 5

Many ranchmen find dogs an efficient help in guarding against coyote depredations. For this purpose the small varieties are useless, since the coyotes do not fear them. Beagles and larger foxhounds are too slow. Staghounds, Russian wolfhounds, greyhounds, and their crosses are to be preferred: and at least three are needed to successfully chase and safely kill a coyote. These dogs soon learn to hunt wolves, and are seldom known to harm sheep. Ranches on which they are kept are comparatively free from depredations of wild animals, while others within a few miles are by do means exempt. Of course, the keeping of these dogs on small farms would hardly be practicable.

In the open country where there are few fences, hunting the coyote with horse and dogs is an exciting sport. Fox chasing, although less meritorious in purpose, may have some advantages as sport, because the quarry is not always in sight and the skill of the hounds is pitted against the cunning of the fox. In the chase of the wolf, as in coursing hares, the race is straight away and without cover; and when the quarry is overtaken the fight is won only because of the overpowering numbers of the pursuers. The ordinary greyhound can easily overtake a coyote, but is usually unable to kill it alone.

Coyote drives, in which an entire community engage, have become a popular feature of rural sport in some parts of the country. Such drives have been held in Kansas, Colorado. Idaho. Oklahoma, and Texas; but the methods employed depend largely on the local topography. The writer was present at the second annual wolf hunt which took place November 24, 1904, in the large Pasture Reserve near Chattanooga, Okla.

On Thanksgiving morning the weather was perfect, and a large number of people from the surrounding country collected in the village of Chattanooga. A little before noon the men who were to drive the wolves rode out of town and headed for their positions in the Pasture. As there were less than 150 men, the area covered by the drive was not so large as had been planned. The drivers were separated into three divisions. The south division, which was under the immediate charge of the commander of the hunt, Mr. J. W. Williams, proceeded about 7 miles south of Chattanooga. The eastern and the western divisions were under the charge of other captains and had their stations about 4 miles to the southeast and southwest of the town. The area covered by the drive was somewhat over 6 miles square.

On the north side were the spectators, occupying a position about a mile and a half from the town and extending over nearly 2 miles of front, from which the land sloped gently to the south. The spectators came from town in every sort of farm vehicle and numbered fully 500.

In front of the line of vehicles some 50 men on horseback held in reserve nearly 100 dogs, mostly greyhounds. Guns of all kinds were ruled out of the final 'round-up,' and only lariats, dogs, and clubs were permitted as weapons.

The line of spectators was formed at 1 o'clock, but it was fully an hour before the driving divisions were heard or seen. In the south a beautiful mirage occupied the distant valley a white sheet of water bordered by trees. It was on the surface of this mimic lake that we first saw the riders galloping by twos. Soon after we faintly heard their distant shouts; and when the shouts began to come clearer, the coyotes also came up the valley by ones and twos, and at length by threes and fours before the swiftly moving horsemen.

When the first wolf was still a half mile distant, the dogs were released and riders and dogs dashed to the front to head off the animals. Hemmed in in front and rear, they broke to the right and to the left, and many made good their escape through the thinner lines of the east and the west divisions.

The sport was fast and furious for a short time, but when a little Later the dead and captured wolves were brought together in the town, they were found to number only eleven in all. Two of them were roped by cowboys during the drive and killed with pistols. Two were dragged to death at the end of lariats. Seven were caught by the dogs in the round-up, and two of these were brought in alive. Many escaped, but it is impossible to estimate the number.

Such hunts have considerable influence in decreasing the number of coyotes and also afford an agreeable break in the monotony of frontier life. Their purpose, however, is never admitted to be that of sport, but to kill coyotes.

BOUNTIES.

Activity in the warfare against the coyote has been considerably stimulated by the payment of bounties from the public treasury of the States and counties. Nearly all the States in which coyotes occur have been for years maintaining such bounty systems. In some parts of the West these are supplemented by rewards from stock associations or ranch owners. The bounties from public funds have ranged from 25 cents to $5 for each animal killed, but supplementary payments sometimes make them as high as $15.

The subject of bounties in general has been already discussed by Dr. T. S. Palmer, of the Biological Survey. Doctor Palmer refers to the California coyote act of 1891, which was practically in force only eighteen months, but which cost the State $187,485. As the bounty was $5 per scalp, this represented the destruction of 37,493 coyotes. Kansas, with a county bounty of $1 per animal, succeeds in destroying about 20,000 each year. In addition to the bounty, the pelt of an adult coyote is worth from 50 cents to $1.50, according to its condition. However, most of the killing is accomplished in spring, when the female and her young are dug out of dens and the pelage of the adults is not in prime condition.

Doctor Palmer rightly concludes that in practice bounties for the destruction of noxious animals, paid from public funds, are usually objectionable. Probably those on wolves and coyotes have been more nearly justified than those on any other animals. While it is certain that the larger wolves have greatly diminished in numbers under the system, forces far more potent than mere rewards have operated against them. Chief of these has been the encroachment of civilization. Coyotes have in some places held their ground under bounties, and possibly might have been held in check nearly as well under the operation of the same forces that helped to decimate the timber wolves. But the observed effect on the coyote of contact with settlements hardly justifies such a conclusion. That the bounties in some places have done effective work is undoubted; the question is as to whether the results have been commensurate with the expenditures. However, the principal objection to bounties is the ethical one, that they lead to fraudulent practices.

PROTECTION AGAINST COYOTES.

The discussion of the various means of destroying coyotes, and the evident futility, thus far, of all of them combined to completely check the increase of the species, leads naturally to the consideration of means of preventing their depredations. Could domestic animals be entirely protected, the coyotes would return to their original beneficial occupation as scavengers and destroyers of noxious rodents.

The plan that at once suggests itself is that of fencing against them. This means of protection from wild animals has been long in vogue in the Australian colonies and in South Africa. In Australia rabbits, dingoes, and some species of kangaroos are successfully kept out of pastures and crops by the use of wire nettings. In Cape Colony jackals, particularly the red jackal (Canis mesomelas), are a great hindrance to sheep and ostrich farming, and the success attending the use of wire netting in Australia led to the introduction of similar fencing into South Africa. The result has been highly gratifying. While the cost of the fencing is high, the advantages from its use have been regarded as more than compensating for the outlay. Mr. T. T. Hoole, president of the Upper Albany (Cape Colony) Farmer's Association, in a paper read at a meeting of that society gives details of ten years' experience with jackal-proof fencing. Among its advantages to sheep growers he names:

1. Decreased cost of herding.

2. Increased value of the wool, about 3 cents per pound.

3. Increased number of lambs reared.

4. Increased value, owing to early maturity and condition of stock.

5. Less liability to contagion from scab.

6. Reduced death rate.

7. Additional security of the flock.

8. Improved condition of pasturage as against deterioration.

The last item alone he regards as more than repaying the entire cost of erection. Under the system of herding on the open veldt it becomes necessary to protect from wild animals by driving the sheep to a kraal for the night. In the vicinity of the kraal the ground is soon trodden bare, and deep parallel paths are worn in the surface. In a few years the torrential rains wash the paths into what are called 'sluits'--similar to the 'arroyos' of our own Southwest.

In the western part of the United States the practice of keeping sheep in vast herds has resulted in much deterioration of the ranges, due to overcrowding, and the cost of herding has absorbed much of the profits of sheep raising. The process of withdrawing lands for homesteads and the various reservations has diminished the free range and increased the crowding, until flock owners for their own protection have been compelled to purchase lands for range purposes. The day of free pasturage on public lands is fast passing, and with private ownership of ranges, fencing must be resorted to to confine the flocks. The additional expenditure necessary to make the fences proof against coyotes would be inconsiderable when all the advantages are properly weighed.

INVESTIGATIONS CONCERNING COYOTE-PROOF FENCING.