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DNA Testing Links Moraga Coyote To Latest Lafayette Bite Incident

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State Fish and Wildlife officials said DNA testing of animal saliva acquired after three recent coyote encounters in Moraga and Lafayette has revealed that a single animal was responsible for all three biting incidents.

Lab results proved that a coyote was responsible for a bite delivered to a Diablo Foods store employee in Lafayette the evening of December 15 and also proved that the offending animal was responsible for two earlier biting incidents in Moraga on Dec. 4 and July 9, Capt. Patrick Foy said.

“CDFW and allied agency partners have already started operational planning to locate the offending coyote,” Foy wrote, adding that there were no plans to initiate a “cull” – or organized killing – of area coyotes.

The Diablo Foods employee was taking a break behind the grocery store in downtown Lafayette when the coyote approached and bit him on the leg. He and a few co-workers scared it off, Foy said.

A Fish and Wildlife official responded and took DNA swabs of the bite wound and samples of the employee’s pants to send to a Sacramento lab where they will try and develop a coyote genetic profile to compare to other bites in the area.

The attack is the eighth confirmed coyote bite this year in California and the fourth in the Bay Area.

8 COMMENTS

  1. Hope they can track, trap and relocate this animal without resorting to our usual solutions for this sort of thing.

    • This particular coyote is dangerous. He is either rabid or he has lost his fear of the #1 predator, humans. Either way he is not rational, and he is aggressive. Not an animal to be relocated. Cull him so that we can coexist with the rest.

  2. He’s the Golden State Biter. You don’t relocate this predator.. You kill it. I believe he’s rabid, and will bite or kill anything or anybody.

    • No indication that he’s rabid. Believe you’re attributing a lethality to him beyond his actual capabilities. We hope he’s not killed, as several apparently innocent animals already have, but it may come down to that.

      • Rabid coyotes are much more likely to be aggressive. Animal control has no choice than to euthanize it. And, yes – coyotes have killed humans. In 1981 a three year old girl was killed by a coyote while playing in her front yard in California. In 2009 an adult was killed in Canada. It is NOT beyond a coyotes capability to kill a human, but its rare. A lot of things are rare, but they still happen.

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