By Ted Kesting One of t lie most grueling and at the same time one of the most exciting and unusual winter sports 1 know about is coyote running the way it's done in the Great Lakes area. It is hound sport in the full meaning of what hounds were fashioned to do. They not only have to run long, hard and sure, under diffi cult conditions, but they have to fight. When a coyote decides that he has run enough, he'll smiply quit and turn to put up a wtiale of a fight It is one of the most curious animal reactions I know of. According to outdoor writer Byron Ualyrymplc. the coyote ha’s one of the strangest histories this continent ever produced. A cen tury ago it was almost unknown east ol the prairies. As stockmen, heepinen and farmers moved in both men and coyotes felt each other's pressures. So destructive were the coyotes that the greatest mass poisoning project, was ear ned on ior almost a quarter of a century. Nobody knows how many- co yotes were killed, but when it was ail over there still were plenty of coyotes left.. They had become tougher, far more ('rally and determined. And they spread out. It was not long until they were tip m Alaska where none had been before and as far south as Costa Rica, a distance of over 7.000 miles A few years ago coyotes be gan to be sighted all the way • from Maine to Florida. Today in the Last the so-cahed "brush wolf" is fairly common and hunt ed with hounds by those who have what it takes physically to follow , this sport. An interesting side 'lglit on how the coyote was able to survive and to extend his domain so greatly is revealed in many stories concerning his 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 all four fret gone' Hairy triple saw one old co yote last winter that was known to have been around those parts for at least U> years. Hunters and trappers by scores had tried for him. He was finally inn down and killed by a greyhound. His teeth were worn almost to the jaw, every foot had toes missing, one leg had' sometime been broken and countless other scars were oil hinn In other words, where injuries eventually kill other predators, the tough coyote can take it. He will eat practically anything, from grass and berries to rabbits, mice and carrion. And our • new” co yote is on the whole, larger and much changed in habit. The aver age 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. Movie Guide

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