The fact that two coyotes attacked and killed 19-year-old Taylor Mitchell in Cape Breton Highlands National Park on Tuesday was strange for two reasons, say experts: Coyote attacks on humans are very rare — and two animals attacking together, even more so.
BRIAN GAVRILOFF, THE JOURNAL, FILE
A coyote likely larger than this western variety killed a woman in Nova Scotia.
“There are literally thousands of these animals between Windsor, (Ont.) and St. John (N.L.),”said Brad White, a coyote expert at Trent University in Peterborough, Ont., “and I don’t know another incident like this. It’s a very exceptional thing.”
While coyotes have been known to kill pets and small livestock, the animals that attacked Mitchell were probably coyote-wolf hybrids, White said.
Wolves are more likely to hunt in packs and are less picky about what they prey on, White explained. But the intermingling in the early 1900s between the normally solitary coyote and the wolf might explain the attack on Mitchell. “A human could look like prey to them — but still, I’ve never heard of an eastern coyote attacking a human.”
Meanwhile, a biologist with the Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources said he’s seen no reason to suspect the animals were coyote-wolf crosses. Don Anderson noted there are no wolves in Nova Scotia or New Brunswick. “We do have a larger coyote that’s bigger than the western version,” he said. “It does travel in groups, as opposed to the western, which tends to travel alone.
“I can’t say that there aren’t some out there that are hybrids with dogs, or wolves, for that matter, but I don’t think the whole population is based on that,” he said.
White said the odds are also against the two coyotes having rabies. “Two diseased animals attacking would be unlikely, because it’s unlikely the progression of something like rabies, which is a lethal disease, would be parallel in two animals,” he said. “Usually, they’d be in different stages.”
No comments:
Post a Comment