Coyote that attacked five is finally caught
The Bay Area’s anxious coyote watch is finally over.
A coyote that bit five people, including two young children, in the last eight months was caught and killed Thursday in Moraga, a suburb of about 16,000 people east of San Francisco, a state agency announced Friday.
“It’s such a relief for the community,” Capt. Patrick Foy of the Department of Fish and Wildlife said in an interview. “They can finally enjoy the outdoors again.”
The animal, an adult male, had menaced a 2-mile area in Moraga and neighboring Lafayette since July, but Foy said a team of U.S. Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services personnel finally caught it Thursday morning in a padded leghold trap, off a stretch of the Calle La Mesa road just north of Campolindo High School.
Then came the anticipation. A state forensics lab compared DNA collected from the coyote with samples taken from each of the five bite victims. By early evening, the verdict was in: a match.
The coyote’s first known attack came in Contra Costa County last summer when it bit a 2-yearold boy in the parking lot of a park July 9, letting go after the child’s nanny smacked it with a bicycle helmet.
It seemed like an isolated case, but the animal reemerged, attacking a 45-year-old man Dec. 4 as he worked out on a high school field with friends; a male grocery store employee in Lafayette on Dec. 15; a 3-year-old girl walking down the street with her mother Feb. 16; and another man near a Kwik Stop in Lafayette on Feb. 19.
All the attacks occurred in the morning or early evening, when coyotes are most active.
Authorities had been laying traps in places near where the coyote attacked people and using coyote urine to try to catch the aggressive animal for months, Foy said. Multiple local, state and federal agencies had all been part of what he characterized as an all-hands-on-deck effort.
Several other coyotes were caught and euthanized before the culprit was trapped, Foy said, including one about a week ago.
A rabies test will be conducted as standard procedure, the state agency said. It noted that no evidence suggested the coyote was rabid.
Although coyotes have been known to live in residential neighborhoods, where they eat squirrels, mice, rabbits and birds, attacks on humans are rare, Foy said. Coyotes have long been present in much of North America and live in every state except Hawaii.
“They’re an important part of the ecosystem,” he said. “They’re good at keeping rodents under control and are good scavengers.”
Last year, at least 10 attacks by coyotes were reported in California. But Foy said the animals are nocturnal and fearful of humans and usually try to stay out of sight. He was unsure why this one was so aggressive.
“This was a really unusual case,” he said. “I’ve been around 24 years and never seen anything like it.”