October 2009, coyote attack in Cape Breton Highlands National Park
The death of 19-year-old folk singer Taylor Mitchell is the only fatality resulting from a coyote attack on a human adult ever documented in North America.
“This dietary evidence was the critical piece to it,” Gehrt said. “Their diets changed because they’re taking advantage of whatever different food items are available at the time. We’re used to seeing big oscillations across the segments of whiskers depending on the season. But in this system, for these coyotes, we don’t see that—they flat line at the moose end, so there’s very little variation in their diet.”
Samples from the coyotes that were confirmed to have been involved in the fatal attack showed they had been eating only moose, “and their diet wasn’t changing,” he said. An analysis of coyote droppings confirmed the isotope findings.
I was surprised there was work done on this and that it is coming out now. I remember when it happened and how unusual it seemed. I have been there a lot in the spring and I have seen coyotes up there but never had any trouble. I wonder if this was before or after the hares crashed up there. I remember one year where I think I counted 200 along the road within a few miles. I had never seen anything like that before. They didn’t mention it but moose were also declining before 2009 as they ate through the regen from the budworm in the 1970’s. In the 1990’s, they were clipping the hardwood so hard it looked like hedge pruning. A few years ago, an exclusion fence was set up to test the regen response to their browsing. It was a dramatic difference between inside and outside.