California officials fight back after coyotes attack children

CHINO HILLS, Calif. -- Two coyotes are dead and officers are hunting others after closing a Chino Hills, Calif. park where children have been bitten or threatened on at least seven occasions since last July.

On Friday, a coyote bit and tried to drag off a 2-year-old girl. The next evening, a coyote "made a beeline" for another small child in the same park, but the father kicked at the animal and scared it away, said state Fish and Game Assistant Chief Mike McBride.

In the past nine months, four children have been bitten and one child was attacked twice, he said.

In McBride's view, enough is enough.

"This is just over the top," he said. "When we have this kind of a problem, it's a bad idea to be a coyote. Too many problems in too small an area."

Despite the trouble, Alterra Park, in the southwestern region of San Bernardino County, is likely to be to be reopened in a matter of days, McBride said.

All of the incidents have occurred within a football field-size area that includes the playground, McBride and other officials said. The city park lies in the midst of a Chino Hills neighborhood but borders the much larger and more rugged Chino Hills State Park, home to a variety of wildlife that includes coyotes and rattlesnakes.

Wildlife experts suspect people have been feeding the animals, perhaps unintentionally by leaving pet food or garbage outdoors and uncovered at night.

The victim of Friday's bite suffered two puncture wounds on her buttocks before a babysitter rushed to the rescue, said San Bernardino County sheriff's spokeswoman Jodi Miller, who spoke to the child's mother. The girl was taken to a hospital for treatment, which will include a series of rabies vaccinations.

"She's at home," Miller said of the Chino Hills girl. "She does have to undergo the rabies (inoculations). But her mom says she's doing just fine."

A witness said the coyote that bit the child appeared to be limping. That gives officials some hope that they've killed the offending animal.

A front foot on one of the dead coyotes had particularly long claws, suggesting that the animal had been favoring that paw, McBride said.

An X-ray of that animal's leg showed a healed fracture at the joint, an injury that likely would have caused it to limp, he said.

"Is that part of the reason that the coyote was going after slower prey? That's a possibility," he said.

However, there are plenty of rabbits and rodents for coyotes to feed on in the area where the attacks have been occurring, he said.

"This one's got us scratching our heads," he said.

Most Southern California coyotes are the size of a small dog, weighing roughly 30 pounds.

Although they prefer to hunt smaller animals, the largest coyotes have been known to kill sheep, fawns and calves -- even attack adult humans.

Since the late 1970s, there have been at least 111 coyote attacks on humans in Southern California, resulting in 136 people being bitten, said Rex Baker, a retired Cal Poly Pomona professor who has studied the region's coyotes.

"In 1981, a 3-year-old girl was killed in Glendale," Baker said, recalling the death of Kelly Keen. "She was attacked in her front yard while she was waiting for her father to get his car keys."

The animal went for her throat before her dad could intervene, Baker said.

Although that is the only known fatal coyote attack on a human in Southern California, at least 49 children have been bitten, according to Baker's research.

"A number of adults who were injured were trying to protect their pets," he said.

Coyote attacks are becoming frequent because there's more food for the animals in the suburbs than they can find in the wild, he said.

Pet food and trash are among the biggest attractions. But cats and small dogs also are on the menu, as are some plants and fruit.

"Bird feeders are something that really seemed to attract them," Baker said. "Birds throw out what they don't want to eat. And that attracts mice. And that attracts ... predators."

Regardless of how many coyotes are killed during a short-term hunt in Chino Hills, the species won't be endangered, even locally, said Fish and Game biologist Kevin Brennan.

"Coyotes are one of the most resilient animals there are," he said. "They've had everything thrown at them, from poisoning, aerial gunning, trapping and shooting. And they've resisted all forms of population control."

E-mail Richard Brooks at rbrooks(at)PE.com

(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)