Mom saves 5-year-old bitten by coyote on family hike at California park, officials say

A mother saved her young daughter from a coyote attack Wednesday at a California regional park by frightening the animal away, The San Francisco Chronicle reported.

The 5-year-old girl suffered bites to her back and neck in the 2:30 p.m. attack, KNTV reported.

She has been hospitalized in stable condition, the East Bay Regional Park District reported on Twitter. Park police and wildlife officers are seeking the coyote.

The girl’s family had been hiking at the 650-acre Dublin Hills Regional Park in the San Francisco Bay Area when several coyotes approached, The East Bay Times reported.

One jumped on the girl and “went for her head,” said Capt. Patrick Foy of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, The San Francisco Chronicle reported.

Doug Bell, wildlife program manager for the park district, says he can’t remember a similar incident since he joined the agency in 2005, The East Bay Times reported.

“Up until now all of our incidents have been mostly coyote and dog incidents and then humans get involved trying (to) protect their dogs, but we’ve never had an attack on a human being,” he said, according to KNTV.

Park police and state wildlife officers are searching Dublin Hills Regional Park, which has been closed, for the coyote, which will be euthanized, The San Francisco Chronicle reported.

“It’s a public safety issue,” Bell said, calling the attack “unprovoked,” according to The East Bay Times. “In a situation where we have potential loss of life and threat of further loss of life with an animal disposed to attack humans, it’s incumbent upon us to identify and remove the offending animals.”

Urban coyotes have become common in recent decades, but attacks on humans remain rare, The New York Times reports.

“The nature of the urban coyote is to stay out of our way,” said Seth Magle, director of the Urban Wildlife Institute at the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago, according to the publication. “They’re really good at this magic trick of living in the heart of our cities while avoiding us.”

Sightings of coyotes on deserted San Francisco streets have become more common with most people indoors during coronavirus lockdowns, but experts say their population remains stable.

Bell declined to speculate on whether the coyote attack had any connection to more people visiting parks during the lockdown, however, The East Bay Times reported.

This story was originally published April 2, 2020 at 7:57 AM with the headline "Mom saves 5-year-old bitten by coyote on family hike at California park, officials say."