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In 2009, a pack of coyotes lived in Canada Cape Breton Highlands National Park has killed a 19-year-old hiker in an apparently unprovoked attack. It it was the first coyote-related kill ever documented in Canada and only the second in North America, following the 1981 death of a child in California. More than a decade later, scientists now believe they understand exactly why the tragedy occurred. They argue that the coyotes in the park had begun hunting large animals like moose due to their limited resources, which made them more likely to go after humans. They he ruled out other possible causes, such as coyotes becoming more familiar with humans or their food over time.
The death of the songwriter Taylor Mitchell in late October 2009, it shocked many, including coyote experts. Despite public perception, coyotes are not known to be aggressive towards man. AndEven in urban areas shared by the two species, the animals will often avoid human contact.
A team of scientists in Canada and the United States investigated the possible circumstances behind Mitchell’s death. Their investigation included capturing nearly two dozen coyotes in the area between 2011 and 2013, which allowed the team to fit them with devices to track their movements. They also collected whisker samples from coyotes (including animals implicated in Mitchell’s death) and fur samples from potential prey items in the area, as well as hair samples from a local barber. By studying the nitrogen and carbon content of these samplesthe team was able to estimate the coyotes’ recent diet, including whether they had eaten food intended for humans.
Coyotes generally hunt or gather small prey, even if they are omnivores who can eat almost anything if there is an opportunity. But the team found that Cape Breton coyotes ate mostly moose, with the large animal accounting for half to two-thirds of their diet on average, followed by smaller mammals and deer. The same pattern was true of the coyotes responsible for Mitchell’s death. And unlike coyotes elsewhere, there was little seasonal variation in their diets, suggesting they mainly hunted moose throughout the year.
The switch to large prey items seen in this coyote population would likely have occurred only out of sheer necessity, the authors argue, and it is this unique adaptation that predisposed them to attack Mitchell.
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“We are portraying these animals expanding their niche to basically rely on moose. And we’re also taking it a step further and saying that they weren’t just digging, they were actually killing moose when they could. It’s hard for them to do that, but because they had very little or nothing else to eat, that was their prey,” said lead author Stan Gehrt, a wildlife ecologist at USO, in a declaration from the university. “And that leads to conflicts with people you wouldn’t normally see.”
Gehrt and his team have also collected evidence that deviates from other common theories for the attack. The coyotes in the park had a large range, but still tended to avoid them areas that overlapped with human activity. They also moved more often at night during times of year when humans were most active during the day. And only a handful of coyotes had recently eaten human food (including one of the coyotes involved in attacks on humans), further reducing the possibility that these animals spend a lot of time near us. Finally, hunting and trapping are not permitted in the park, meaning local coyotes may not fear humans as much as they typically do elsewhere.
“It’s a great area for these coyotes to live in and never have a negative experience with a human, assuming they have any experience,” Gehrt said. “That also leads to the logical assumption that we’re making, which is that it’s not difficult for these animals to test to see whether or not people are potential prey.”
All in all, the results published last month in the Journal of Applied Ecology, suggest that what happened to Taylor Mitchell was a tragic but “quite rare” event, the study say the authors. The the conditions that led to its death are especially unlikely to occur in places where coyotes have an abundance of food and natural prey to eat, including urban areas shared with humans. At the same time, people visiting the park or other areas with similar environmental conditions “should be made aware of the risks coyotes pose and encouraged to take precautions,” they wrote, such as bringing along a partner and animal deterrents such as bug spray. for bears. Park managers in these areas may also need to closely monitor coyote behavior and be willing to act sooner than usual, which could include culling aggressive coyotes.
Even if there have been relationships of coyote attacks on the park in subsequent years, no further deaths appear to have occurred.
