Warning about feeding coyotes after teenager attacked on Chatham beach
CHATHAM — Town officials are warning people not to feed coyotes or leave food out after a 16-year-old boy was bitten by a coyote Monday night while eating on Harding Beach.
This is the second coyote attack this year on the Cape. In August, a 3-year-old girl was bitten on the neck by a coyote on Herring Cove Beach in Provincetown.
In a Facebook post, Chatham Police said the teenager and his friend had put a blanket out on the beach and were eating when the coyote approached and bit the boy on the ankle. Both of them fled and the coyote was seen taking some food and going off into the surrounding dunes.
Police were notified of the attack Tuesday.
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“The incident was apparently the result of the coyote acting aggressively toward people in attempts to obtain food,” Robert Duncanson, Chatham’s director of health and natural resources, wrote in a press release Thursday. He cautioned that wild animals, particularly coyotes can become habituated to humans as a food source if people either directly feed them or are careless about disposing of food.
“This behavior starts with people feeding coyotes intentionally by leaving food out, or inadvertently by not removing food scraps and packaging from the beach,” Ducanson said in the release.
Why do coyotes bite humans? We asked wildlife experts why the critters get aggressive
Wild animals become more unpredictable, and behave more aggressively, when they become habituated to humans as a food source, and lose their natural fear and caution.
There was no food involved in the Provincetown attack in August. The family was at Herring Cove Beach to view the sunset in an area that has a history of people feeding coyotes. It is a popular daytime beach with beachgoers bringing food and leaving some of it behind, which attracts scavenging animals.
Cape Cod National Seashore park officials have been warning people of the danger for years at Herring Cove Beach where direct feeding of coyotes was occurring.After a coyote attacked and killed a puppy in May, rangers shot and killed the animal that had been acting aggressively toward people. The puppy was off its leash and 40 feet away from the owners when the coyote grabbed it.
In May 2020, a coyote bit a beachgoer on the ankle at Herring Cove Beach.
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