Mon, 21 Dec 2020 11:54 UTC
Residents of the bucolic towns of Lafayette, Moraga and Orinda have long known to guard their pets and backyards from coyotes prowling in the shadows, behind trees and around garbage bins. They howl behind my house every night, said Melodi Dewey, a Lafayette resident. There s a pack of them on the other side of my fence. I have to keep my dogs from going outside at night.
But Dewey and others in the Contra Costa County area dubbed Lamorinda are warier than ever these days and just as surprised as wildlife officials after a string of coyote attacks this year left three people bitten and injured, the latest one Tuesday behind Diablo Foods in Lafayette.
FAIRFIELD-SUISUN, CALIFORNIA
String of coyote attacks on humans in East Bay’s Lamorinda area rattles some nerves, surprises wildlife officials [Mercury News]
Dec. 21 Residents of the bucolic towns of Lafayette, Moraga and Orinda have long known to guard their pets and backyards from coyotes prowling in the shadows, behind trees and around garbage bins.
“They howl behind my house every night,” said Melodi Dewey, a Lafayette resident. “There’s a pack of them on the other side of my fence. I have to keep my dogs from going outside at night.”
But Dewey and others in the Contra Costa County area dubbed Lamorinda are warier than ever these days and just as surprised as wildlife officials after a string of coyote attacks this year left three people bitten and injured, the latest one Tuesday behind Diablo Foods in Lafayette.
DNA ties same coyote to 3 East Bay attacks, officials say
By KTVU Staff
Coyote bites grocery store employee’s leg in Lafayette
In Lafayette, a coyote bit a grocery store employee s leg Tuesday night. It was the fourth such attack since April in the region.
LAFAYETTE, Calif. - Authorities believe a coyote that bit an employee at a Lafayette grocery store on Tuesday is linked to two other attacks in the area.
The most recent incident happened at the Diablo Foods Grocery Story on Mt. Diablo Boulevard, only about 1.6 miles from where another man was attacked earlier this month at Campolindo High School in Moraga.
A 2-year-old boy was bitten on the leg at Moraga Commons Park in July.
In April, a 5-year-old girl was bitten on the neck and ear at Dublin Hills Regional Park.
Kenji Sytz was doing push-ups as part of his morning exercise routine on the track earlier this month when a coyote bit him unprovoked. There was a coyote latched onto my left calf, Sytz said. Tried to shake him off. He didn t free up, so I had to punch him in the nose.
California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) officials collected saliva samples from Sytz s ripped pants and found a link to a July coyote attack on a 2-year-old boy at a nearby Moraga park. Doing a little bit more DNA work, we managed to actually identify that one coyote was responsible for both attacks, Patrick Foy with CDFW said.