More Cuteness of the Coyote

By Dick Perue

Last week, we left our readers with a partial cute tale of a coyote that had run through the kitchen of a farmhouse and then darted across the barnyard. Now, I’ll provide the rest of story from the Feb. 18, 1897 issue of The Saratoga Sun.

The coyote likes badger flesh very much, but one coyote is not equal to a badger in a fight. Consequently, the coyote, when it meets a badger, has to resort to stratagem until aid arrives. The manner in which it does this, according to sportsmen, is interesting.

“A few weeks ago, as I was riding along, I saw a coyote and a badger,” the writer says. “The coyote seemed to be playing with the badger. He would prance around it, first as if to bite it, then run off a little way, the badger following, evidently very angry.” 

The writer continues, “When the badger saw me, it ran into its hole, while the coyote went off 40 or 50 yards and lay down, knowing I had no gun with me. The coyote’s device was evidently to tease, and so keep the badger interested until another coyote happened along, when the badger would have been killed.”

Plus, of course, I couldn’t help but pass along more stories of the cuteness of the coyote from various historic Wyoming weekly newspapers.

The Equality State and the Geyser State have been suggested as nicknames for Wyoming. Why not call it the Coyote State? Or, as an innovation, drop the state and call it Old Maid’s Paradise? – Wind River Mountaineer

Andy Wagner was in town last Friday with five coyote hides which he had taken from varmints caught down on his ranch.

Coyote skins have become too valuable to make it advisable to leave them unguarded in Wyoming. When Paul Schneider was en route to Kemmerer with 83 skins he had taken in the upper Green River Valley, he placed the trophies overnight in a warehouse at Big Piney. 

When morning came, 36 of the skins had been stolen. He disposed of the remaining 47 for more than $700.

Coyote provides venison

The end of what must have been an interesting chase was witnessed by the residents of the Huston camp one day last week. 

A magnificent buck came bouncing over the mountain and down toward the deep snows in the river canyon, closely pursued by a large coyote. 

The buck was soon floundering in the deep, soft snow and the coyote pounced gleefully upon his prey.

It was out of season for deer hunting, and George Garroutte, having conclusive evidence the coyote was violating the game laws, assumed the position of game warden and ran to the relief of the deer, taking a shot at the coyote as he ran. 

He was too late, however, as the coyote had already cut the animal’s throat and life was nearly extinct.

It would not have been safe to have left the carcass there to attract other ferocious animals. So, merely as a matter of precaution, the boys fell to and put the venison all out of sight as fast as possible.

That night, Tom Madden said, “They set a trap and are now tanning as fine a coyote pelt as was ever grown.”