A bloodthirsty coyote that attacked on a four-year-old girl in an idyllic suburban neighborhood has put a spotlight on the growing number of Americans targeted by wild predators.
The most recent incident occurred in a ritzy area outside Seattle and saw the ferocious animal latch its jaws onto the young girl and begin to drag her away.
Miraculously, the child’s father managed to chase the beast away.
Others haven’t been so lucky.
In recent decades, coyotes, which are not typically aggressive, have killed at least two people in North America.
Coyote attacks pale in comparison to those by bears, cougars, snakes, alligators, and other wild beasts that have claim dozens of lives across America each year.
While there is no official database on deadly wild animal attacks in the US, a 2017 study by Oviedo University found that their numbers are on the rise.
Researchers attributed the spin to more frequent interactions between wild beasts and humans.
Possible reasons for the run-ins include the expansion of suburbs and the construction of new homes in the remote areas inhabited by animals.
Additionally, a growing numbers of thrill-seekers are venturing into remote areas for hiking and other outdoor pursuits, raising the chances of encounters with wildlife.
Climate change, shorter winters, and competition over water and other dwindling supplies may also play a role, according to Chris Servheen, a retired coordinator for the US Fish and Wildlife Service.
Outforia, a website for outdoor enthusiasts, has ranked the brown bear as the deadliest large wild animal in America.
The large carnivores have attacked and killed 70 people since 1970, says the group’s founder, Carl Borg.
Other dangerous animals include snakes, which claimed 57 lives over the same period, followed by black bears (54 fatalities), alligators (33), cougars (16), polar bears (10), and wolves.
Borg urged outdoor enthusiasts to ‘be prepared’ for encounters with wild animals that inhabit the areas they visit.
‘Different animals mean different protocols when facing an attack,’ he said.
‘There are lots of things you can do to avoid an animal attack but knowing whether to stay calm or fight back is key.’
In the face of a coyote attack, humans are advised to stand their ground, appear confident, make a noise, and even throw something at the animal.
That’s how the father of the Seattle-area victim responded when a coyote mauled his daughter last week.
Chang Tong and his daughter, Lena, had just stepped out of the family’s stunning $2.3 million home in the desirable Bellevue neighborhood.
Tong said they thought the gray-and-white canine was a pet dog, so Lena reached out to touch it – but it responded by latching its jaws onto her palm and dragging her.
‘With just one second, the coyote just bit her hand and tried to drag her,’ Tong told CBS affiliate KIRO.
‘She was dragged to the ground.’
Tong’s fatherly instincts kicked in, and he reacted by screaming at the coyote to scare it away.
The animal backed off, and Tong took Lena to the emergency room, where medics treated her for minor injuries to her palm and gave her a rabies shot.
The affluent Bellevue area has recently been plagued by coyote attacks.
The same day Lena was bitten, a coyote also approached a group of school students waiting at a bus stop in nearby Factoria and tried to bite them, tearing their clothes.
On Monday, another coyote stole a backpack after a student left it on the sidewalk in the same area.
A week before that, coyotes bit two adults in separate incidents nearby.
Coyote attacks on humans are uncommon, and rarely cause serious injuries.
The opportunistic animals are more likely to pick on small children.
Attacks have increased in recent decades, especially in the suburbs around Los Angeles.
In 2022, a coyote bit a toddler’s face in nearby Huntington Beach, California.
This past December, Georgianna Orseno was playing with her two-year-old son outside the family home in Weymouth, Massachusetts, when a coyote charged and went for the infant.
The 29-year-old mother was bitten on the leg, but she managed to push the predator away and escape by kicking it against a tree.
The attack left the young mom with bites and scratches on both of her legs.
In another recent wild animal attack, Andrew Nierer was left fearing for his life when he came face-to-face with a 100-pound black bear in Pennsylvania in January.
Nierer was walking to a store in the town of Jim Thorpe when the animal pounced – lunging and wrapping its claws around him.
Nierer suffered bites and scratches before a neighbor shot the animal.
Despite the horrifying ordeal, Nierer told WYOU that he believed the animal was just scared and hungry.
Last year in Minnesota, Bailey Jacobson and her family’s dog, Zeus, had a scary encounter with a black bear of their own.
The dog began trotting in the direction of a mama bear, who was digging through a garbage can outside their home in suburban Maple Grove with three cubs at her side.
The cubs fled as the German shepherd drew near, with Jacobson trailing behind obliviously.
Once she saw the mama bear, she let out a blood-curdling scream.
Jacobson initially tried to protect her dog, but thought better of it and ran back to her porch and waited until Zeus returned safely.
Most of the time, wild animals don’t attack people to kill and eat them.
Such predatory attacks only account for 17 percent of the total seen in North America since 1955, according to the Oviedo University study.
More often, attacks are provoked by people taking pictures with wild animals or feeding them in national parks or other beauty spots.
The animals get accustomed to people and the food they provide, which can lead to attacks.
Others are attributed to risky behavior by people.
This can involve parents leaving their kids to play outside unattended or walking an unleashed dog – behavior that can invite a predator to launch.
Vincenzo Penteriani, a researcher for the Spanish National Research Council, found that half of animal attacks could be avoided if humans had reacted differently.
Still, Penteriani says, fear of a wild animal pouncing should not keep people locked up indoors.
‘There is a lot of attention around these attacks, but in reality the number of attacks is very low,’ he told BBC.