Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1900-09-22
COL0RADo'S COYOTE HUNT.
Thousands of the Pests Expected Ia
be Killed This Fall

Eastern Colorado ranchmen yaIun nm
ordinary coyote at $3.50. This seeming
~ eXtraVagant price will result in an
other great hunt this fall, in which il i
expected that thousands of the little AM;
mails VIII fall victims to the AS of the
cowboys or the hounds OF the sports from
the East. The plains country in eastern
Colorado, which was once the brccdin.
ground and home Of thousands of huf
faloes, Is now populated by thousands of
coyotes, and so destructive have they b,.-
come To stock that the state and the car
Tie baronS working together are offerin.
% .0O for every coyote scalp presented
rms 0Her will result in attractin" hun
dredS of hunters from Nebraska Kansas
wyoming and western Colorado. AMI
even now in the region infested MANY
hunters are making big money.
For the past five years the ranchmoO
nave admitted their inability to cope with
the increasing NUMBERS or wolves. bur
they nave waited patiently in the hone
that the animals might be succesSfully
killed by poison. The wolves however
nave been so well fed on veal and lamh
from the herds that Il piece of beef lying
on the prairie has no attraction for Their
cultivated tastes, and they pass it by
About month ago Gardner Brothers
ranchmen of Yuma county. lost thirty.
SIX head of cattle and for many DAYS
they could not account for The nortalit,
tackled by mad frenzy and would con
tlnue III that condition until death. Thu
| cattle would paw the earth and attpn ur
to bite and hook everything in sight
| whether animate or inanimate. Frotb
| from the mouths of the beasts were scar.
tered over the range. Ranchmen were
| alarmed and did not dare to attemnt IN
Culet or corral the cattle either on floor
or on horseback. After thret. DAYS thrce
dozen cattle were found dead.
Former State Veterinarian Grcwc)
was called down to investigate tbn
causes of the mortality. and he FOR Forwa ,n.
ed complete diagnosis to Washington
! with the result that DR.. Salmon of the
department. of agriculture pronounced il
rabies. Then the Gardner bows remem-
bered that they had killed a coyote which
mad acted very strangely about two
weeks previous to the death Of the stock
lt mad secluded itself in vacant ranch
cabin and was nearly dead from exhans-
ton when one of the COWBOYS on the
roundup dispatched it with club.
The great stock region was alive to
the danger by this time and besides the
regular $3.50 offered for every wolf scalp
by the state of Colorado, two ranchmeu
offered $40 each for every wolf can
tured, and the Eastern Colorado Live
stock association, as a body offered S15
for every animal killed. In Denver
scores of sportsmen with dogs and guns
are arranging TO make an expedition to
the range of sand hills in which the coy
0tes are breeding, and letters from Ne
braska and Kansas indicate that hun.
dreds will be on the ground from neigh
boring states. Many Wyoming people
are already there. The sand hills break
mOnOtonousy-level prairie. Of plain.
near the state line between Colorado and
Nebraska, and it is here that the little
animals breed by thousands every year
Twelve years ago, when one of these
hig wolf hunts was held, it was believed
that the coyote was a thing of the past
because so many of these animals had
been slaughtered. Eighteen hundred
were killed at this time but the MORTAL
| ty appears to have had little effect upon
the coyotes. While the cowboys do not
fear them, instances have been known
where the children of rauchmen have
been attacked by them and have narrow
ly escaped death.