How the East Bay's biting coyote eluded capture for 245 days
Zachary Fletcher
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A California coyote on the run.ROBYN BECK/AFP via Getty Images
It had been 200 days since a coyote started biting people in the East Bay. Five victims, including two toddlers, were attacked in Moraga and Lafayette. The search for the animal was unprecedented, with urban wildlife trackers working around the clock, and agencies at the local, state and federal levels collaborating to set and monitor traps, and collect DNA swabs from the victims, all to find a single animal the size of a coffee table.
Capt. Patrick Foy with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) has seen his share of coyote incidents — there were a dozen across the state in 2020. There were also three mountain lion attacks and six bear attacks that year, but this coyote fiasco was different. Each new attack was upping the ante, with news reports terrifying the citizens of Contra Costa County. As the days stretched on, Foy knew, a capture was becoming increasingly crucial but increasingly unlikely.