Coyotes might look cute, but they're one of the many animals you don't want to mess around with.
It seems like these days, coyotes are appearing in places nobody would expect. One of those is North Herring Cove Beach in Provincetown, Massachusetts. A woman was vacationing in the area with her 3-year-old daughter when they unexpectedly came face-to-face with a coyote. The beach walk they had gone on was meant to be a stroll to look for shooting stars. But instead, they found themselves in a terrifying situation.
"The coyote came from behind and grabbed around the neck," terrified mom Megan Lewis reported.
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Megan's daughter suffered from puncture wounds and lacerations from the coyote attack. It's enough to send a shiver down the spine of any parent.
"Her ear was mutilated," her mom continued.
It's a reminder that anything can happen — and it might be good to think about coyote preparedness while out on the beach. More and more coyotes are starting to make themselves present, especially in search of food.
"This behavior starts with people feeding the coyotes intentionally by leaving food out, or inadvertently by not removing food scraps and packaging from the beach," said the National Park Service in a statement, per HuffPost. "This leads to the animals becoming habituated and bold in attempts to obtain food. When wild animals lose their fear of people, they behave unpredictably and aggressively, resulting in injuries to people and a sad ending for the habituated animal."
Because of people openly feeding them, coyotes aren't as fearful of humans as they used to be. And Megan understands that that's part of the reason behind this unfortunate attack.
The good news is that the little girl is going to be OK — and it's a good reminder for people to know how to handle a coyote if a similar situation takes place. The first rule is easy enough: make sure to never have your back turned to a coyote.
Watch the video for more tips and to hear more about this terrifying story.
