| Show AL IM one ot of the most grueling and at the same time one of the th most exciting and unusual winter sports I 1 know about is c coyote running the way its done don e in the great preat lakes area it la Is houett 0 una a sport ort in the full meaning of whap what hounds were fashioned to do they not only have to run long hard and sure under difficult conditions but they have to fight when a coyote decides that he e has run enough hell simply quit and turn to put up a whale of a light fight it is one of the most cur curious ous animal reactions I 1 know according to outdoor writer dyron byron dalwrymple Daly rymple the coyote te has one of the strangest con h histories t this continent ever produced A century ago it was almost unknown east of 0 the prairies As stockmen stoc kmen sheep men and farmers moved in both men landvoy and coyotes felt each others pressures gres so destructive were the coyotes that the greatest mass poisoning project ever seen got under way and was carried on for almost a quarter of a century nobody knows how many coyotes were erk killed d but when it was all over e t there he r still were plenty of coyotes left they had become tougher far more crafty and determined and they spread out it was not long until they were up in alaska where none had been known before and as far south as costa rica a distance of over miles A few years yean ago coyotes began to be sighted all the way from ma maine I 1 ne to florida today in the east the so called brush wolf Is 19 fairly common and hunted with hounds by those who have what dt takes physically to follow this sport an interesting side aide light on how h OW the coyote wa was 3 able to survive and to extend his domain so greatly Is revealed in many stories concerning his tou toughness expert fox trappers will tell you that almost never Is a fox caught that has a missing foot but coyotes have been taken with WM alt all 10 four ur feet gonel gone dal dalary mple saw one om old coyote tasi last winter r that was ivas known to have been around around those parts for at least 10 years hunters and trappers rs by scores had tried for him he e was finally run down and killed by a greyhound grey hound hla his teeth were worn almost to the jaw law every foot had toes missing one leg had sometime been broken and countless other scars were on him in other words where injuries eventually kill other preda tors the tough coyote can take it he H e will ill eat pra practically anything from grass and berries to mice and carrion and our new coyote li Is on the whole larger and much changed in habit the average western coyote will weigh from 20 to possibly 35 pounds eastern and great lakes animals have been taken that weighed as much as 60 pounds that Is a right hefty chunk of animal |
