Coyote Attack: One Captured, Another On The Loose In Chicago

Chicago animal control officials said Friday it had caputred one coyote and was searching for another after a pair of attacks earlier in the week that left a 6-year-old boy and 32-year-old man injured.

A coyote was caught around 10 p.m. Thursday after it was found near the Lincoln Park area in Chicago’s North Side. Animal Care and Control said the animal, which had been injured, was tranquilized and taken into custody. A second coyote reportedly was spotted in the same area but managed to evade capture. Animal control was still looking for it Friday morning.

The agency was running DNA tests to confirm whether the coyote in custody was the one that attacked the boy outside Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum on Wednesday. The boy had been running by the museum when he was bitten on the head. Two DePaul University students were nearby and rushed over to fight the animal off. The pair tended to the boy until police arrived and transported him to Lurie Children’s Hospital for treatment.

“We just ran over there instinctively ... and just saw a kid bleeding from his head, all over his jacket, all over his face,” DePaul student Ryan Taylor, 19, told reporters.

Kelley Gandurski, executive director of Chicago Animal Care and Control, said coyote sightings in and around the city are common. An estimated 3,000 live in the surrounding county. However, she said, it had been nearly a decade since the last reported coyote attack in the city.

A man reported a coyote attack after walking into Northwestern Memorial Hospital with scratch and bite marks along his backside. He told doctors and police a coyote had attacked him though investigators had no immediate confirmation.

“In general, coyotes are adapting to cities,” Lincoln Park Zoo’s Urban Wildlife Institute expert Seth Magle told CBS Chicago-affiliate, WBBM. “They’re doing better and better over time as they learn how to make use of these urban landscapes that we’ve created. I feel confident in saying I think that their numbers are generally on the upswing.”