Coyote attacks 5-year-old boy outside nature museum in Chicago

[jpak]

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/coyote-attack-chicago-boy-bitten-multiple-times-outside-peggy-notebaert-nature-museum-lincoln-park/

A 5-year-old boy was taken to the hospital Wednesday after a coyote bit him several times outside a nature museum in Lincoln Park, CBS Chicago reports. Police said the boy was near the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum when a coyote bit him "multiple times" around 4 p.m.


A Fire Department spokesman said the boy was bitten on the head and was taken to Lurie Children's Hospital to be treated. His condition was stable, according to police.

After the attack, the coyote took off running north. CBS Chicago reported the coyote was still on the loose Wednesday night. Police drove squad cars along the running paths in the park of Lincoln Park with their spotlights shining.

<snip>

About half an hour before the attack, Twitter user Xime Mendez sent CBS Chicago a video of a limping coyote walking down the sidewalk just blocks from the museum.

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Link to tweet

[ProfessorGAC]

1. Thing Must Be Awfully Sick

Or hurt
Coyote are normally pretty skittish around anything they have to look up at.
We're very close to a restored prairie land so there's plenty of those, but the control people can lasso them and take back in 20 seconds or less because they are very unlikely to attack
When they can't catch them, they have had to dart them. But not out of self-defense.

[USALiberal]

2. Hope the kid gets rabies shots asap! Nt

[Karadeniz]

3. No video for me, but limping.....lack of motor control in the hind legs can be a symptom of rabies.

[jcgoldie]

10. The only recorded cases of rabies in the entire state of Illinois for the past 10 years...

...have come from bats. I did research on this last year when one of my livestock guard dogs killed a raccoon and received a big nasty wound in his side then began acting very suspect. The fact that other species simply have almost no record of being rabid in this area caused me to wait it out and it was the right choice.

...Not saying its impossible just that the statistics say its a lot less likely than most people would suspect.

[pnwmom]

11. Regardless of how unusual it might be, I'm glad they're testing the coyote for rabies.

https://www.kiro7.com/news/science/chicago-coyote/BMECWJETS7LJSEXT74QXPE7N5U/

[MyNameGoesHere]

4. Ha that's my neighborhood.

[Tink41]

5. Coyote Project

Luckily this area has an active team that has been tracking urban coyotes in Cook County since the 90s I believe. There was a short interview with one of their biologists today. There was another attack by Northwestern Hospital this morning if I recall.

[Kaleva]

6. I saw a coyote on E Ohio Street in Chicago one day a few years ago.

[greenjar_01]

7. I run in this area often

I've seen a coyote or two further north, Peterson Park area, but never over there by Fullerton near Lake Shore Drive. They usually just run when you see them. Saw one up close in Legion Park (North Lincoln Square) come out of the brush by the river.

Another coyote bit a guy in Streeterville (closer to downtown Chicago) yesterday as well, and they locked down Lincoln Park High School today after another one (maybe the same one?) was spotted nearby. It's not that hard to imagine the same coyote getting from Streeterville to Lincoln Park, but it's a bit of a hike.

[Withywindle]

8. That's definitely not normal coyote behavior

I hope the kid is OK. Rabies shots an absolute must, that sounds suspicious to me.

I also hope it doesn't cause some kind of anti-coyote panic. They're usually no threat to humans at all and they're great to have in Chicago because they help keep the rat population down. I saw one once in a vacant lot by Halsted and Division a few years ago, just trotting around like it owned the place. Beautiful, clever animals.

[RhodeIslandOne]

9. Yup, it's sick

Hope they find it fast.

[greytdemocrat]

12. That animal

needs to be hunted down
and killed ASAP.

Sorry, but humans are the top
of the food chain and you can't allow
an animal like this to get away.