I was hunting in Kansas when this coyote came right up to me.
I froze, and he got within 3 feet of me, just being curious.
I was prepared, just in case he decided to get a little crazy.
Back in October of 2009, Taylor Mitchell, a 19-year-old rising star, went for a hike, and enjoy a beautiful late fall day in Nova Scotia. Mitchell, a folk singer, was nominated for Young Performer of the Year honors by Canadian Folk Music Awards. She could not have guessed something this serene could go so horribly wrong.
Mitchell was no stranger to the outdoors, as the Ontario native was known as a seasoned naturalist and well versed in camping and outdoor skills. She was touring the Maritime provinces and found herself with a break between musical gigs and go for a hike in the woods.
She chose the Skyline trail in Cape Breton Highlands National Park for her hike. The area is very popular among outdoor people and is well travelled. As Mitchell headed up the trail, a pack of coyotes attacked her.
Other hikers witnessed the attack and immediately called 911. She was later airlifted to a hospital in Halifax, where she died about 12 hours later from the wounds she sustained. Besides her distinction as a folk singer, she also became the 2nd person to ever die from a coyote attack in North America.
I paid special attention to this case because of the rarity of fatal coyote attacks against humans, and because we tend to overestimate ourselves as a species. I enjoy hunting dangerous game because of the chance you may quickly become the hunted. Animals that have no fear of humans intrigue me, but I never placed coyotes on that list. The only other confirmed fatal attack involved a child in Southern California during the 1980s.
I have been around coyotes most of my life. My personal interactions with them convinced me they are curious, often coming close to humans to investigate us. Coyotes are very intelligent creatures. If ranchers and hunters put pressure on them in the daytime, they will become nocturnal. Most coyotes get educated to game calls in a hurry. Once you fool one or two, the others will no longer respond to the calls.
The first inclination for this attack was to claim the animals were sick. In a study of wolf attacks, a high percentage of the wolves were later diagnosed with rabies. If not rabies in these coyotes, how about distemper? I have seen cases of distemper turn an animal in to a crazy, fearless, attacking beast, coming after anything in its path. Although it is doubtful these coyotes were all infected with distemper, at the exact same time.
A study by Stanley D. Ghert and Lynsey A. White, and published in Human Dimensions of Wildlife, documented 142 reported incidents of coyote attacks on human beings in the United States and Canada, involving 159 people.
They found that 37% of the attacks were predatory and 22% were investigative in nature. The attacks were equally split between adults and children. The predatory attacks are the ones that cause me the most concern.
Stanley Gehrt studied the coyotes in the park where Taylor Mitchell was killed. In a paper published in the Journal of Applied Ecology, he claims the park coyotes had adapted to a limited food supply by learning how to hunt and kill moose, a trait believed to be extraordinary among these smaller sized carnivores.
“When coyotes grow used to taking a 700-pound animal, and you have a single woman walking by herself, it seems perfectly natural to assume that they simply saw her as a novel food item,” Gehrt said in an interview.
He went on to say, “One argument would be that the coyote’s ability to survive is tied to their ability to switch from one food source to another. These coyotes were eating a diet completely of moose.”
Coyotes in the park resorted to prey-switching because their typical prey, snowshoe hare and white-tailed deer, were in short supply at the time. Moose were the likely target. At least one moose carcass found in the park during the study showed signs of predation. Several live, adult moose were observed with fresh wounds consistent with coyote bites.
It is important to note the park’s coyotes are not subjected to hunting or trapping, which means they don’t have any natural fear of humans. Gehrt stressed that the attack on Mitchell was related to the park’s unique ecological characteristics that changed over the years. They had conditioned themselves to go after large prey, like moose, and this person all alone was something small.
I have witnessed coyotes bring down a mature sized mule deer without much trouble, so it stands to reason that a coyote could view a human as suitable sized prey. Perhaps I have been complacent around coyotes, not giving them much thought as a maneater.
In recent years coyotes are more and more prevalent in our urban areas. I see them occasionally in my yard as they search for food, especially during the winter months. As their habitat disappears to “progress” so do the natural supply of prey they live on. When that happens, they turn to alternate food sources, like pets and livestock. It could only be a matter of time before they look at us as the blue plate special. It is not likely, but something to think about.
Mark Rackay
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Mark Rackay is a columnist for the Montrose Daily Press, Delta County Independent, and several other newspapers, as well as a feature writer for The Nautical Mile, and several other saltwater fishing magazines. He is an avid hunter and world class saltwater angler, who travels around the world in search of adventure and serves as a Director and Public Information Officer for the Montrose County Sheriff’s Posse.
