A woman was injured this week after a coyote bit her leg on Tennessee Beach in the Marin Headlands, authorities said.
The woman told park rangers the coyote was acting aggressively as it approached her Tuesday afternoon on the remote beach in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. After the animal bit her, she walked the 1.7-mile trail back to Tennessee Valley Road and drove to a hospital, where she was treated for minor injuries, according to a spokesman for the National Park Service.
Using a piece of the woman’s clothing, park officials are attempting to collect a sample of the coyote’s DNA. The genetic information will be used to identify and track the animal as part of a new program that aims to address the growing problem of coyotes approaching people in search of food in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, said park service spokesman Charles Strickfaden.
The program, which launched this month, comes as the number of park visitors has skyrocketed during the coronavirus pandemic, resulting in increased interaction between humans and wildlife, according to Strickfaden.
He said park rangers have noted a “large increase” in reports of people feeding coyotes. As a result, “food-conditioned coyotes” are increasingly approaching visitors to beg for food.
In response, park workers have begun trapping coyotes and outfitting them with GPS tracking collars, which biologists are using to study the animals’ movement. Roughly a half-dozen coyotes have been tagged and released since the program began. In the event that a coyote is found to repeatedly beg for food from park visitors, rangers will use “negative stimuli,” including clapping, yelling and waving, to deter the animals from approaching humans, according to a park service announcement.
While interactions between humans and coyotes are on the rise in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, reports of coyotes biting people are rare, according to Strickfaden.
If park scientists are able to identify the coyote that bit the woman on Tuesday, “our next steps will involve collaring or hazing the animal to deter aggressive behavior and increasing our public outreach in the area,” Strickfaden said.
“The removal, or euthanizing, of any animal is something our staff does not take lightly, and would occur only in the situation of extreme public danger, and of a confirmed habituated animal exhibiting repeated aggressive behavior,” he said.
He noted that coyotes have more often been spotted on roads and pullouts in the national park recently as a result of people feeding them, and the animals are more frequently hit by cars. Since last month, at least three coyotes were hit in the Marin Headlands, he noted.
“Having visitors and food-conditioned coyotes in close proximity sets up a bad situation for both,” Strickfaden said. “Coyotes are wild animals, and although they appear docile, they can react aggressively to different human cues.”
Park officials are urging visitors not to feed or approach wild animals. If approached by an aggressive animal, officials recommend making loud noises and large movements.
