Cybernesco/iStock(CHICAGO) — A coyote was captured by animal control in Chicago Thursday night after two attacks were reported in the city, police said.
Animal control inspectors responded to a call of an injured coyote and safely darted the animal with a tranquilizer, Chicago Animal Care and Control officials tweeted overnight.
The coyote was taken to Chicago Animal Care and Control for further evaluation, animal control officials said.
It’s not immediately clear if this coyote was the one connected to either reported attack in the Windy City.
The first attack was Wednesday afternoon when a 6-year-old boy was bitten multiple times by a coyote, according to Chicago police.
The boy was with a caretaker on a walking path in the Lincoln Park neighborhood at the time of the attack, Kelley Gandurski, executive director of Chicago Animal Care and Control, said at a news conference Thursday.
The coyote fled, police said, and the boy was taken to a children’s hospital in stable condition.
Then Wednesday evening, a 32-year-old man went to Northwestern Hospital and said he had been walking on a sidewalk when a coyote came from behind and bit him, police said.
He was “listed in good condition and will be treated and released,” police said Thursday afternoon.
Gandurski confirmed the attack on the 6-year-old, but said Thursday she could not confirm the second incident as she had not yet spoken to the man.
Gandurski said coyote attacks are “very rare,” explaining that the animals “are part of our ecosystem here in Chicago and they have lived among us for generations.”
“They prey upon small rodents … generally they do not want any contact with people,” she said.
On Thursday, she urged residents to call 311 if they spotted a coyote.
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