Coyotes in the wild rarely interact with humans. Typically they prefer to observe people from a distance and don’t bother getting too close.
Such wasn’t the case for Rhode Island resident, Daniel Torres who was repeatedly charged by a coyote that continued to circle him for about 20 minutes.
Torres was walking alone through Merino Park in Providence around 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 27, 2021, when the incident occurred according to NBC News.
The video shows a coyote circling Torres while repeatedly snapping at him and charging.
Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management Wildlife Biologist, Charlie Brown gave some incite after he was sent the video Torres recorded. He replied saying:
“To be honest, I’ve never seen a coyote behave like that. Based on the behavior of the animal, circling, and charging, the first thing that comes to my mind is potentially rabies. I think we’ve only ever had two cases that I’m aware of in rabies in coyotes in Rhode Island since 1994.”
Brown went on to advise that if you do encounter a coyote in the wild, the best thing to do is to stand your ground, look big, face the animal, and avoid trying to run away.
Fortunately, Torres was able to escape the bizarre incident unharmed.
Watch the video he captured below.