A coyote that may have attacked two children in the city’s North Kildonan neighbourhood has been located and euthanized.
In a statement Manitoba Natural Resources and Northern Development said they captured an adult coyote “as part of efforts by the Manitoba Conservation Officer Service to respond to recent coyote attacks on children.”
The Manitoba Trappers Association confirmed they sent a licensed trapper to the North Kildonan neighbourhood on June 30 after a four-year-old child was mauled by a coyote in the Headmaster Row area that day.
Six days prior, a nine-year-old boy was walking with his sister in the area of Knowles Avenue and Popko Crescent when a coyote attacked the boy.
Kristine Baliquette, an area resident, said she’s never had a close encounter with the animals, but the recent attacks made her more cautious of the coyotes she hears howling in the area at night.
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“(The attacks) kind of hit home that it can be pretty dangerous,” she told Global News.
Baliquette said the coyotes she’s seen in the area don’t seem afraid of people.
“I couldn’t figure out why they would attack.”
Barrett Miller, manager of group programming at FortWhyte Alive, said the attacks are a reminder that wildlife should not be treated like pets.
“This just hammers home why we need to do things like keep human food out of the mouths of wildlife and always be aware of our surroundings anytime we’re in a natural or semi-natural area,” he told 680 CJOB’s Connecting Winnipeg.
Miller says the advice goes for any wild animal, be it a coyote or a squirrel.
“We can prevent (attacks), or vastly reduce the chances of them happening by just making sure that those animals do not begin to associate us with food,” he said.
Miller speculates the rise in coyote sightings in the city is not because of food scarcity in their natural habitats, but the opposite.
“You don’t get (coyotes) in an area without a big ecosystem full of herbivores and little rodents underneath them,
“A concentration of people means the concentration of food, which means the concentration of smaller wildlife, which could drive the bigger wildlife to come in.”
Coun. Jeff Browaty agrees.
The North Kildonan councillor grew up in the neighbourhood and said while he recalls seeing wildlife like rabbits and squirrels in the area, animals like foxes and coyotes are a newer phenomenon.
Browaty guesses the increase is coming from people interacting and feeding them.
“The fact that they’re becoming so brazen and comfortable around the public is interesting,” he said.
The councillor said coyote control falls under provincial jurisdiction and the city is working with the province to address it.
Manitoba Conservation said the animal has been sent for testing and officers and trappers continue to monitor the area for other aggressive wildlife.
— with files from Katherine Dornian
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