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Show RONALD REAGAN THURSDAY, along the bear river SJPPLEMENT TO THE NEWS EXAMINER. PRESTON CITIZEN. CACHE MARCH FEATURES CLASSIFIEDS TV GUIDE PAUL HARVEY 6. 197$ CITIZEN. GRACE CITIZEN AND THE LEADER GARl AND TIMES OSCAR ALMOND of Preston stands by five of the coyotes which were taken recently by Ixninty hunters in Franklin County. Fur prices have become quite low and the $5 bounty the county is paying has helped to encourage hunting. Almond says nearly 100 coyotes, taken from all areas of the county including Weston, Clifton, Winder, Banida and Treasureton, have been brought to him for verification. Almond says most people are surprised at the number in the area. He says that most of those in this photo are females and pointed out that the population explosion factor of the animal is similar to dogs. Citizen Photo Coyotes are enormously successful in spite of humans, according to Dr. Edson Fichter, professor of zoology and curator of mam malogy at Idaho State Un- yt iversity. Fichter and zoology graduate student Roger Woodruff, Idaho Falls, are cur- seessfafl Sim spin' ... rently involved in the third study on year of a coyote dispersal and home ranges on Idaho National Laboratory Engineering (INEL) land near Idaho Falls. The study is currently being funded by the AEC. DESPITE TRAPS, poison, and other snowmobiles man-produce- d hazards, coyotes have spread their geographic range in the last few decades," according to Fichter. He noted that coyotes have even been observed in and around some California cities. Recent magazine articles claiming the coyote is an endangered species are pulling somebody's said Fichter. The success of the leg." coyote is due to his versatility. They are highly adaptive , animals that can change with their environment," said Fichter. They're exceedingly versatile eaters. Coyotes are omnivorous carnivores that eat birds and mammals and have been seen eating horse manure when the going gets bad, said Fichter. ANOTHER FACTOR contributing to the coyotes success is a propensity for inversity." Fichter explain- ed this in simplest terms as meaning that reproductive success (fecundity) goes up as the population dwindles. Fichters and Woodruff's study relies on the use of a radio collar placed on the animal's neck after it is trapped and released. This method uses triangulation of the radio signal to locate the animals and causes no ill affects or interference to the animals. Six coyotes are currently wearing collars, and as many as 20 will be in place by this summer. Not all coyotes are willing to cooperate with the study, as graduate student Roger Rucker, Pocatello, found last year. Rucker homed in on the signal and after several hours of digging and scrapping in a small area found the collar buried under three inches of dirt. THE COYOTES under study roam a stretch of the Arco desert area all of which is federal land where any hunting is illegal. Adjacent lands in the area are subject to coyote control by the Fish and Wildlife Service. This involves the very expensive procedure of hunting by helicopter as poisoning was outlawed several years ago. Fichter has had no interference from coyote control efforts. The study has dealt most specifically with the coyotes home ranges which Fichter observed are larger than we thought we would ever see. The range can be as large as 30 square miles. The size of the home range may correspond with a cycle of the jack rabbit coyotes population the main source of food in this area. Currently the cycle is at a low point which could mean a smaller coyote population and a larger home 10-ye- for the remaining coyotes. We have to understand the extent of the coyotes' home range to understand its relationship to other animals, said Fichter. range hunting ground THE STUDY is one of six underway at the INEL site by the faculty and graduate students from ISU. The site has been declared by the federal government as a research area, one of two in the country, and studies (Hi the ecology and radiation of the area have ensued. The six studies are under the direction of Dr. 0. Doyle Markham, principal director of the INEL. radioecology program and research associate at ISU. The study was initiated in by graduate student Loren Edwards, Arco, and supported by the Idaho Wool Growers Association, the U. S. Forest Service, and the Idaho Fish and Game Department. The latter agency also financed the second segment of the research which was carried out by 1972 graduate student Roger Rucker. Engineer honored for service IN BEAR RIVER WATER PLANNING A citation for supi-service was recently i ii pre- sented to Dean E. Bischoff by David L. Crandall, director of the Upper Colorado River Region of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation in Salt Lake City. He was notified by Gilbert G. Stamm in January. Mr. Stamm is commissioner of reclamation for the Department of the Interior. The citation is for superior service for his "notable contribution to planning for water resources development in the Bear River Basin, involving Utah. Idaho DEAN E. BISCHOFF is presented a citation for superior service by David director of the upper Colorado River Region of the U. S. Bureau of Reclamation City. l Crandall, in Salt I ake and Wyoming." Department of the Interior Superior Service Honor Award for You." Mr. Bischoff has been with the Bureau of Reclamation since February 1946. He is a retired colonel with the Army Engineer Corps. He is presently the bishop of the Smithfield Second Ward and a former member of the Smithfield stake presidency. He is married to the former Marian Weeks and they are the parents of six children, two boys and four girls. The bureau's successful water resources development program in the Bear River Basin are due in large part to his sound, comprehensive planning, the letter further stated. Mr. Bischoff was praised for the vital role he played in securing the cooperation and support of concerned interests in the project. The letter stated. In recognition of your effective leadership and dedicated service in planning irrigation facilities in Northern Utah, Southern Idaho and Southwestern Wyoming, it is a pleasure to approve a |