Another coyote has been killed in the North Kildonan area following attacks on two children in June.
Manitoba Conservation said two coyotes have been shot in the Knowles Avenue area of north Winnipeg after a four-year-old and a nine-year-old were mauled by coyotes six days apart in the same neighbourhood.
Staff Sgt. Graeme Smith said the attacks on people were the first of such incidents in Winnipeg.
“This is extremely rare behavior for coyotes to be exhibiting,” he told reporters at a Wednesday press conference.
On Tuesday the Manitoba Trappers Association confirmed they sent a licensed trapper to the North Kildonan neighbourhood on June 30, the same day a four-year-old girl was mauled by a coyote in the Headmaster Row area.
The first attack was on a boy who was walking with his sister in the Knowles Avenue area on June 24.
The first coyote was shot Monday and the second was killed Wednesday morning, Smith said. The conservation officer confirmed the animals were not trapped first.
DNA testing to see if the coyotes killed are those which attacked the children is underway and could take weeks. Swabs from the boy’s head and the girl’s clothing will be used to compare swabs taken from the animals to determine if they’re a match.
Elfriede Laubstede has lived in the area for 48 years and said coyotes haven’t been an issue until recently.
“We had deer, skunks, lots of little animals but never coyotes,” she told Global News.
The North Kildonan resident said she has her grandchildren over in the evening frequently, but since the attacks, they’re wary of going outside at night.
Laubstede said she is herself refraining from going outside unless she needs to and has paused taking strolls through the neighbourhood.
“I’m putting that on hold until things get better.”
Smith said investigation into whether people are intentionally feeding the animals is continuing, and under the Wildlife Act perpetrators can be fined if found to be giving coyotes food.
The officer defended the shooting of the animals and said the increased sightings and attacks can usually be tied to intentional feeding.
“Any physical contact at all with a person would result in this,” he said. “The level of habituation generally will decide what their behaviour is, it’s generally a progression.”
Smith said the city has received approximately 120 reports of coyote sightings since April 1.
Researchers at the University of Manitoba will study the contents of the coyotes’ stomachs to determine if the coyotes, in fact, were habituated to humans.
Conservation said leg hold traps are still set up in the grassy area and officers will continue monitoring the area, removing any other habituated coyotes they catch.
– with files from Global News’ Marney Blunt
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