Coyote bites 3-year-old who was walking with her mother

MORAGA >> A coyote bit a 3-year-old girl as she walked with her mother on Tuesday morning, the most recent report of a coyote snapping at a person in the Lafayette-Moraga-Orinda area, police said.

Tuesday’s attack occurred around 8:30 a.m. near Campolindo Drive and Calle la Montana.

The girl was walking alongside her mother, who was pushing a stroller, when it happened.

“Without warning, the coyote came up from behind and bit the child,” Moraga Police Chief Jon King said in an interview.

The mother got the animal to disengage. “It ran away,” King said. “She immediately called 911.”

The extent of the girl’s injuries was not available, but King said the bite punctured the skin.

The coyote was last seen headed north on Calle La Montana, according to police.

Along with police, the Moraga-Orinda Fire Department and Contra Costa County Animal Services responded to the call. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife also was notified.

The girl’s family took her to UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland for treatment.

Last year, three people were bitten and injured in the area — in December at Campolindo High School in Moraga and behind Diablo Foods in Lafayette, and in July near Moraga Commons Park.

Lab results using the DNA in the saliva found around the wounds indicated the same coyote was responsible for each attack, according to Fish and Wildlife.

Although the agency trapped and killed four coyotes in the area late last year, none was the animal that was apparently responsible for the three attacks.

It is not known whether the coyote that bit the girl on Tuesday was also behind those earlier attacks.

Police are warning people to not leave small children or pets unattended outside and to be vigilant while outside at dusk and dawn, when coyotes can be active.