When Man Becomes Prey

by Cat Urbigkit

  Residential areas provide all the habitat components for coyotes—food, water, and sheltered cover. Yard landscaping provides brushy areas for the small mammals that coyotes prey on, and there is plenty of open space and water in municipal parks, yards, and trails. Food sources are nearly unlimited.

  Types of Coyote Attack

  In December 2013, a Summerland, British Colombia, woman was walking a friend’s dog along a well-used community trail when three coyotes approached and surrounded the pair. The woman crouched down over the dog and sustained wounds to her hands and arms as she slapped at the coyotes and protected the dog from harm. This type of attack is classified as a pet-oriented attack—one of five general attack categories delineated by Ohio State University researchers Lynsey White and Stanley Gehrt in a 2009 paper in Human Dimensions of Wildlife. In a pet-oriented attack, a person is bitten while trying to rescue a pet from a coyote attack, or the pet may have served as an attractant to the coyote.

  In rabid attacks, the offending coyote is identified, captured, and killed, and a positive rabies test confirms the presence of the disease.

  A defensive attack involves a coyote that is accidentally cornered or is defending its pups or a den site.

  The final two categories result from the animal losing its fear of humans:

  Predatory: The animal (or pack) directly attacks, bites, and in some cases tries to drag a victim away. These cases usually involve severe injuries.

  Investigative: A coyote becomes accustomed to its victim and “tests” the victim as a source of possible prey. In these cases, the victim is usually sleeping or resting.

  White and Gehrt recorded 142 coyote attacks on humans, with 159 victims, from 1960 to 2006. These attacks occurred in fourteen states and four Canadian provinces. Nearly half of the attacks happened in California.

  Most of the attacks were classified as predatory (37 percent), followed by investigative (22 percent). Predatory attacks are typified by a coyote running straight at its chosen victim, and maintaining the attack even after being discovered by the victim. Although 24 percent of the attacks were categorized as an unknown type, attacks by rabid animals constituted 7 percent of the total, with 6 percent classified as pet-related attacks, and the remaining 4 percent classified as defensive.

  Although coyotes attacked people of all ages, the overall percentage of coyote attacks on children was only slightly higher than attacks on adults. In predatory attacks, the majority of attacks were on children ages ten years old or younger. Most attacks occurred during the coyote pup-rearing season. In 75 percent of the cases involving children, the children were playing outside in their yards or driveways before the attack. Coyotes may have viewed the children as prey and were stimulated to attack by children running or behaving in a playful manner, White and Gehrt reported.

  Coyotes were provided food—either intentionally or accidentally—by residents near the attack site prior to the attack in 30 percent of the 142 attacks tallied by researchers.

  Wild coyotes living in areas where coyote hunting or other predator-control activities take place tend to be active at night and seek hiding places to avoid humans during the day. The large number of attacks that occurred during daylight hours suggests that the offending coyotes were no longer avoiding humans. One study of coyote–human conflicts in national parks in the United States found that aggressive coyote behavior was exhibited most often when coyotes had been receiving food, whether accidentally or intentionally.

  Predicted Changes in Behavior

  Coyote experts, led by the University of California’s Robert Timm and Rex Baker, developed a list of predictable changes in coyote behavior that indicate an increased risk to human safety. These seven escalating steps, which were published in a 2004 paper, are considered the definitive behavioral prediction for an increase in risk of conflicts that may result in coyote attacks on humans.

  Increased observations of coyotes on streets and in yards at night.

  Increase in coyotes approaching adults and killing pets at night.

  Early morning and late afternoon observations of coyotes on streets, in yards, and in parks.

  Coyotes observed chasing or killing pets during daylight hours.

  Coyotes attacking and killing pets on leashes or in close proximity to their owners, and coyotes chasing joggers, bicyclists, and other adults.

  Coyotes observed near children’s play areas, such as parks and school grounds, during midday.

  Coyotes acting aggressively toward adult humans during midday.

  Timm and Baker noted: “As coyotes continue to adapt to suburban environments and as their populations continue to expand and increase throughout North America, coyote attacks on humans can be expected to occur and to increase. To reverse this trend, authorities and citizens must act responsibly to correct coyote behavior problems before they escalate into public health and safety risks for children and adults.”

  In addition to the human safety risk associated with human-habituated coyotes, the presence of coyotes in close association with humans and their pets poses health risks as well. Both humans and pets could be put at risk for rabies and other diseases and parasites that have serious health effects.

  Scientists believe that among the factors leading to an increase in predatory coyote attacks are growth in both human and predator populations, as well as the protection of predators that were once harassed by humans.

  “Reduced coyote control efforts by federal and/or county agencies, as well as by landowners, may have led to increased coyote attacks in two ways: local coyote numbers are no longer suppressed, and coyotes’ fear of humans is no longer reinforced by lethal control efforts (i.e., shooting and trapping),” according to Timm and Baker.

  Reductions in sport hunting and target shooting have correlated with a reduction in the wariness of coyotes as a result of a failure to receive negative consequences from human contact.

  Predators that are able to exploit the additional food resources available in urban habitats often exhibit higher population densities in urban environments compared with rural areas. For example, more than 5,000 coyotes live within the city limits of Los Angeles—an average of nearly 11 coyotes per square mile. Increased population density, along with an increased survival rate as the animals are protected from hunting, comes with an increased risk of conflict with human neighbors. Some researchers have indicated that the coyote may be the most dangerous carnivore to humans because of its large body size, its potential to hybridize with wolves, and its close association with urban areas.

  Factors Leading to Conflict

  Researchers Robert Schmidt and Robert Timm identified factors that may lead to conflicts between humans and coyotes. That list, as outlined in a 2007 paper, included:

  Resource-rich suburban environments: Many residential landscapes include lush vegetation that provides excellent habitat for coyote prey species such as rabbits and rodents, which will, in turn, attract coyotes. Bird feeders and pet food are also potential attractants for coyotes.

  Human acceptance of coyote presence: Rather than allowing coyotes to come near humans with no negative response, humans need to be proactive. Harassing or hazing coyotes, making threatening gestures, yelling, squirting the animals with water hoses, or throwing rocks at them helps coyotes maintain their wariness around humans.

  Lack of knowledge of coyote behavior: Few people realize that coyotes are a plentiful and widespread species, that human-habituated coyotes are very dangerous animals, and that aggressive management actions are needed to intervene before human injuries are sustained. In most cases, lethal control of aggressive individual coyotes is the most effective approach.

  Feeding of coyotes: Coyotes can come into conflict with humans as the result of intentional feeding. It only takes one person providing food for coyotes to pose a risk to the health and safety of humans and pets in an entire neighborhood.

  Reduction in predator control: Once individual coyotes demonstrate aggressive/habitu
ated behavior, coyote specialists recommend the animals be removed from the population to prevent attacks. The selective removal of a few bold coyotes helps to restore the fear of humans into the entire coyote population of an area. Wildlife officials recommend that, while coyotes may provide an enjoyable wildlife viewing experience, hikers should keep their distance and not approach the animals.

  Suburban and Urban Issues

  Coyote attacks on humans are increasing in some suburban areas of the United States. Arizona officials note that there have been eight coyote bites in ten years in Maricopa County, home of capital city Phoenix and nearly four million people. The Denver, Colorado, metropolitan area has been plagued by coyote conflicts in recent years, with twenty coyote bites confirmed between 2000 and the fall of 2011.

  The Denver-area suburb of Broomfield experienced a series of coyote attacks on children in 2011. It began in July 2011, with a father strolling on a walking path near his home with his two small children. While the father was putting his little girl into a wagon, his two-year-old son ran ahead about 10 feet, and a coyote lunged out from the tall grass and attacked the boy, biting him on the back and buttocks. When both father and son yelled, the coyote ended the attack and retreated a short distance. A juvenile female coyote was killed in the area a few days later.

  A few weeks later, a coyote approached a four-year-old girl as she exited a slide on a playground where she was playing with other children. The coyote was intent on the child, approaching within 2 feet when a mother intervened, scaring the animal away.

  Two weeks later, the target was a six-year-old boy, in a location less than 100 yards from the playground incident. The playground and pool area were busy with families and children, and several people noticed a coyote in the thick vegetation along the stream corridor. One woman was following the coyote and taking photos with her cell phone camera when a father and his two small children began making their way that direction, with the little boy running ahead. The woman yelled that there was a coyote, but at the same time, the coyote jumped a retaining wall, landing on the boy and biting him. The coyote aggressively postured and snarled at the father before retreating. The animal remained in the area, and local and state officials decided to step up control actions to stop the attacks.

  Although hunting is prohibited in the Broomfield area, state wildlife officials killed nearly a dozen coyotes in the neighborhood after the attacks. Local officials instituted a program to reduce vegetation along paths and trails in the community to reduce hiding cover for predators, and city workers began an active campaign to harass and haze any coyotes behaving unacceptably, or using areas that the public generally deemed socially unacceptable for coyote occupancy (such as near schools and playgrounds). A few weeks after the second attack, a coyote attacked a three-year-old girl, again near the same playground. After this final incident, wildlife officials killed an adult male coyote, red in coloration. Officials believed this coyote was responsible for all four incidents, and after its death, there were no further attacks.

  The investigation report for the Broomfield conflicts, written by a panel of experts on coyote conflicts including Stan Grant, Julie Young, and Seth Riley, stated: “The 2011 incidents conformed to typical predatory attacks that have been reported in other cities. The similarities of the Broomfield incidents to most predatory attacks in other cities include: children as victims, minor bite wounds, most attacks during daylight, and the attacks occurred in residential areas, including backyards. Finally, a healthy coyote(s) presumably carried out the Broomfield incidents, which is typical of predatory attacks. There was no evidence of disease, starvation, or other types of stress that provoked the attacks.”

  The report suggested the possibility that the predatory behavior initiated by the coyote or coyotes was stimulated by the movement and sounds of the children prior to the attack (as in the sounds the children made while playing, walking, or running).

  Boulder, Colorado, officials were forced to kill an aggressive coyote in late 2011 after the animal repeatedly chased bicycle commuters on a well-used trail. The coyote bit the tire on one bike, and the attacks escalated over a month’s time. A ranger responding to a complaint witnessed potentially dangerous behavior as the coyote followed hikers using the trail; the ranger soon thereafter dispatched the animal. Three months later (in February 2012), two additional Boulder coyotes had to be killed after one of them attacked a jogger using a bike path. The jogger received treatment for injuries sustained in the attack.

  In June 2012, southern California experienced a series of coyote attacks, one involving a woman who was bitten by a coyote as she was gardening in her gated community. A federal animal damage control agent later killed the coyote. Less than two weeks later, another woman was “bumped” on a leg by a coyote while taking her morning walk, and another coyote was subsequently killed for its apparent lack of fear of humans.

  Just a few days later, a five-year-old girl was bitten by a coyote while walking with her family in a state park in Oregon. Other recreationists reported encounters with an aggressive coyote in the same area.

  Western states are not alone in experiencing increasing conflicts with coyotes. Residents of Fairfield, Connecticut, suffered from a rash of pet-killing behavior by their local coyote population in July 2012. Coyotes killed at least six dogs in that town.

  According to a press release issued by the city of Rye, New York, at 9:15 p.m. on June 25, 2010, a six-year-old girl was in the front yard of her home playing with several other girls when two coyotes ran from a nearby wooded area, jumped on her, and knocked her to the ground. The girl was bitten on her shoulder and thigh, and sustained scratches on the head, back, and neck. The coyotes fled when an adult approached.

  Four days later, at 7:15 p.m., a three-year-old girl in the same community was attacked. The girl was playing with a six-year-old neighbor in the yard between their homes, with her father nearby on the deck. A coyote surged out from behind a rock, jumping on the girl and knocking her to the ground. She was bitten on the left side of her neck and torso, and once again the coyote fled when adults came to the rescue.

  Reports of coyotes in the city had increased in recent months, and one small dog had been killed by a coyote in an incident leading up to the attacks on the little girls. City officials had been working with a nuisance animal control firm prior to the attacks, and nine coyotes (an adult female and her eight pups) had been captured and relocated. The coyotes responsible for the attacks were not located, and although local law enforcement officers fired shots at several coyotes, they were uncertain whether those shots connected.

  As researcher Stanley Gehrt observed, urban areas have an abundance of food for coyotes, and no hunting and trapping. He told the New York Times: “It’s not just us encroaching on their territory. They’re encroaching on us.”

  Dozens of pets were reported killed by coyotes in Huntington Beach, California, in late 2012, but town officials declined to take action, despite more than 200 calls to town officials about coyotes within just a few months. In addition to the loss of pets, residents reported brazen behavior, including coyotes approaching people. Apparently unaware that the complaints from residents revealed a pattern of escalating behavior indicating an increasing risk of attack on humans, a town councilwoman replied that people needed to modify their behavior to prevent the animals from becoming problems.

  Metropolitan areas across the country are experiencing life with coyote populations within city limits, too—from Seattle, St. Paul, and Chicago to Boston, Atlanta, New York City, and Washington, DC.

  Researchers estimate anywhere from a few hundred to a couple of thousand coyotes living in the Chicago area alone, home of a long-term study of urban coyotes. Two coyotes were photographed hanging around Wrigley Field on a busy Saturday night in 2012. Conflicts occurred, as expected, and in early 2013, a pack of four snarling coyotes chased a homeowner’s dogs into their home 10 miles west of downtown Chicago. The coyotes tried to enter the house, smas
hing the glass panels on the doors in the process. The homeowner grabbed a BB gun and hit two of the animals, causing the pack to retreat.

  Outdoors enthusiasts in the area around Boulder, Colorado, once again had to face aggressive coyotes in late 2012 and early 2013. The first reports were of a woman using a stick to repeatedly hit an aggressive coyote interested in the dog she was walking, and of a coyote lunging at a bicyclist who repeatedly yelled and kicked at the animal. The next report was of an adult woman jogger confronted by one coyote, and then a second coyote behind her. At first, the woman held her own, yelling at the animals, but eventually she ran and was attacked from behind, receiving a bite to her calf. A man saw the attack and came to the jogger’s aid, and the two people were eventually able to chase the aggressive coyotes away. The woman received medical treatment at a local hospital.

  Within days, more aggressive encounters were reported, including another bicyclist being chased. The city of Boulder held a planning session to develop a coyote management plan, with the intent of reducing the likelihood of future conflicts between humans and coyotes in the problem area of the city. The plan focused on increasing staff presence in the conflict area, increasing public education, and the opportunistic hazing of habituated coyotes. The hazing program involved staff members being present on local trails every day, looking for coyotes and employing techniques designed to scare the animals away from humans.

  The first day of implementation of a new month-long program to actively haze coyotes proved the need for such a program. A man walking a dog was approached by an aggressive coyote, with ears back and bared teeth, at the same time a city staffer was hazing away a coyote in an area nearby. To further complicate matters, city officials discovered discarded human food in the area where the problem coyote behavior was reported, indicating the coyotes had received food rewards associated with humans. Educational efforts increased, and the proactive hazing continued.