Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/01/21/man-wrestles-and-kills-coyote.html
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So the only person who actually got bitten was the guy who attacked the coyote to stop it from biting anyone? That’s… ironic.
Rabies shots are not fun. I know someone who got attacked by a rabid bat when he was camping (completely out of the blue - he was sitting there at a camp and the bat flew up and started biting him). He had to kill it as it kept going after him, and he figured it was likely rabid so he’d need to take it in for testing. To make things worse, he had difficulty getting medical staff to believe his story and treat him - because it happened just before Halloween and they kept thinking it was a joke/delusion.
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Uh yeah. Round of rabies shots on the house, because that is extremely unusual behavior for a coyote.
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Thank goodness!
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average male weighs 8 to 20 kg (18 to 44 lb)
That said, the coyotes who hang out around my parents’ house seem really big: I think they’re slowly moving to take over the mostly extinct Mexican wolf’s ecological niche.
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Eastern Coyotes are nearly a different species than it’s smaller western cousins. Eastern coyotes in the NE US have slowly taken the alpha predator mantle since wolves were pushed out.
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oh Christ, queue up the wackos on Nextdoor who will now post every… single…fucking…coyote sighting and tell us all to ‘beware and bring in your fur babies!!’ I live in an area where coyotes are frequent but, as someone already noted, this behavior is very unusual. That won’t keep them from posting it, and then everyone else attacking them about how ‘we’re invading their space’ blah blah.
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I also think that the hysterics are usually over the top and lead to some silly theatrics, but… FWIW the coyotes around the Chicago area have changed their behavior so drastically over the last 10-15 years that counting on them to be as skittish and averse to being around people as they used to be might not hold. It’s kind of nuts to see them out in the day, in full view of people just trotting along 50 ft away.
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I know this is off topic but I was having the conversation last month about how I believe even though Ralphie gets all the attention (being first person narrator and all…), Randy is really the unsung hero of the Parker clan.
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Not exactly. It bit his toddler but didn’t break the skin because it got mouthfuls of snow suit. I wouldn’t call that “not bitten,” it was just an unsuccessful attack on the part of the Coyote. It also apparently bit someone else earlier in the day trying to get into her house, and she’s also undergoing rabies shots.
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the same coyote, likely sick,
Lived in the West for 45 years, never seen a coyote attack a human, ever, it had to be sick, or sick of humans…
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Yep, just like the geese. I sometimes think the critters are all just biding their time while gradually moving in, as if they know that our species is going to do itself in pretty soon.
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This is not a wonderful thing.
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Well, a number of people were attacked and their clothing bitten, but he was the only one to be actually bitten (at least according to the post, which only mentions the attacks that resulted in no injuries).
Coyotes are opportunists. Where I lived in the San Bernardino mountains, it was common for coyotes to make errant pets disappear. They even would occasionally try to attack toddlers. I got used to chasing them when they were around the house, they’d always run looking back with an expression, “What’s this crazy human doing.”
In the LA suburbs, I had a large coyote circle me while I was sitting in an open field, the rest of his family watching from a distance. More curiosity than hunger, but wasn’t afraid.
I had another coyote in that complex start approaching me and a friend who were walking down a sidewalk. That was the first time I saw a wild animal sizing me up. Yelled and waved our hands, but it kept walking toward us. Then I started running toward it, it turned and ran away. We weren’t worth the bother. It was definitely of sound mind. Just very used to living in a suburban area with a large county park nearby to hide in.
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Not really, the coyote was actually attempting to hurt his toddler (who was thankfully protected by their thick coat) and he put himself in harm’s way to protect his child. That’s no more “ironic” than a secret service agent taking a bullet while protecting his boss from a would-be assassin.
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That kid will brag about his dad being a badass who killed a coyote with his bare hands to save his life. And then grandkids will tell it and then great grandkid…
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“Child, did I ever tell you the tale of how my ancestor wrestled his son from the very jaws of Fenrir?”
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Are you sure they’re coyotes and not coywolves? We have both in my Boston suburb, not sure where you are
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