RIGHT: Toronto singer Taylor Mitchell, from her Facebook page.Still no clear indications what spurred coyote attack that killed Toronto singer Taylor Mitchell during a visit to Nova Scotia.
Louisbourg, N.S. — The Canadian Press
Published on Monday, Nov. 02, 2009 4:11PM EST
Experts have determined that a coyote believed to be involved in a shocking attack on a young hiker on a Cape Breton trail was neither diseased nor hungry.
Parks Canada staff tracked and destroyed a coyote last Tuesday, hours after Taylor Mitchell, a folk singer from Toronto, was mauled by two of the animals in Cape Breton Highlands National Park.
The 19-year-old later died in a Halifax hospital.
The federal agency said the Atlantic Veterinary Centre has done tests on the coyote and preliminary results suggest it was involved in the attack on the Skyline Trail, which remained closed Monday.
“There's no evidence of rabies or other disease or any other physical element of the animal that might have led to this attack,” said Chip Bird, a field unit superintendent with Parks Canada in Cape Breton.
Mr. Bird said the coyote was a 14-kilogram adult female in “really healthy shape.” There was also evidence that the coyote had food in its system.
“This was not a hungry or starving animal,” he said.
There have been a number of theories as to why the coyotes attacked Ms. Mitchell as she hiked alone on the popular trail. Coyotes are considered shy animals that are typically fearful of humans.
Some experts have suggested the coyotes were young, inexperienced and unafraid of humans. Others have theorized the animals were diseased.
Mr. Bird said Parks Canada staff are talking to other wildlife experts in hopes of determining what happened.
Meanwhile, the search continues on the Skyline Trail and other trails nearby for the second coyote involved in the attack.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/coyote-likely-involved-in-ns-attack-not-diseased/article1348612/
(Submitted by Kelly Mc Gillis)
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We have one other record of a coyote killing someone. This one happened in LA County in which a three year-old girl was severely mauled by coyote.
ReplyDeleteA dais was held to allow various members of the public to understand what had happened and offer their own commentary, but the coyote activists in California made total fools of themselves.
The coyotes of New England and the Maritimes have interbred with wolves, and even though they are mostly coyote, their shape and size has changed.They are almost coyotes that are evolving into pack-hunting wolves, although they are obviously still smaller than the normal wolf, which actually has a clean record when it comes to killing people in North America (although the Kenton Carnegie case might be that one incident in which wolves did kill someone.)