Police in Haverhill are warning residents to keep an eye out for coyotes after a person was attacked Friday night, but state wildlife officials say the coyote population across Massachusetts remains stable.
Dave Wattles, a black bear and furbearer biologist with the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife, said there are currently between 10,000 and 12,000 coyotes in the state.
“The number of coyotes we have in Massachusetts and have had for a while is pretty much what we can expect to have kind of almost indefinitely,” he said. “They’re not going to just keep increasing like you would see maybe with deer populations. They increase and decrease slightly, but pretty much stay steady at the average.”
In Haverhill, the coyote was first spotted “eyeballing” a two-year-old when a neighbor intervened, according to police. The coyote then bit the neighbor in the arm before the neighbor fought off the coyote with a shovel.
Police said the neighbor thought the coyote was dead until it ran off and was struck by a car. The coyote was later seen walking into a wooded area behind Solid Slice Pizzeria & Pub on Broadway and Route 97.
While the Haverhill police drone unit searched the area, the coyote wasn’t found. Police believe the coyote could be dead but haven’t been able to confirm it.
This attack comes nearly two months after a string of coyote encounters and at least two surviving dog attacks in Lexington.
Wattles said he doesn’t anticipate that this coyote attack will lead to more. He adds that there’s only “a couple of people bitten by coyotes in an entire year in Massachusetts.”
“I saw a video of that incident and the animal was clearly rabid,” he said. “That animal — they believe it was struck by a car. Even if it wasn’t, they die fairly quickly once they start showing symptoms like that, so not an indication that there is going to be more.”
Wattles said more conflict typically happens in Eastern Massachusetts since people act passively toward coyotes when they should be acting more aggressively.
“That means yelling, making loud noises, aggressively chasing the coyote out of your yard if they’re in your yard,” he said. “Coyotes communicate with each other with dominant behavior, and people exhibiting that dominance will teach them that they should avoid people.”
Wattles adds that it’s important to immediately seek medical treatment and rabies shots anytime someone is bitten by a coyote.
“While we were very confident that this animal is rabid, you can’t tell if you don’t have the animal in hand to test it,” he said. “It’s always recommended, regardless of the animal’s behavior, regardless of the species of mammal, to begin rabies shots just as a precaution.”
