Video: Colorado Man Fights Off 3 Coyotes on His Walk to Work
OutdoorHub Reporters 10.19.13
This is scary!
A man in Boulder County, Colorado was attacked by three coyotes Monday morning, and is recovering in the hospital with multiple injuries.
According to CBS4, the man told Colorado Parks and Wildlife officials that he ran from the pack of coyotes for around 70 yards while they attacked him, before finally getting away.
“They lunged at him and were scratching and biting,” Parks and Wildlife spokeswoman Jennifer Churchill said.
This type of behavior is uncommon for coyotes, who generally keep their distance from humans, and only really get defensive of their young or if something – or someone – is between them and their food supply.
Churchill said officials tracked down and killed two of the three coyotes involved in the incident, and the last one is still unaccounted for.
“We will continue to look because we do consider this a predatory kind of attack,” Churchill said.
These attacks are rare, but not unheard of. Data from the USDA’s Wildlife Services, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, and other sources show that 41 attacks occurred during the period of 1988–1997, and another 48 attacks were verified from 1998 through 2003. The majority of these incidents occurred in Southern California near the suburban-wildland interface. There have also been two fatal confirmed coyote attacks on humans in the United States.
