Posted on 10/28/2009 12:33:10 PM PDT by Borges
Taylor Mitchell, a 19-year-old Toronto singer whose debut album was released in March, has died in a Nova Scotia hospital after being mauled by coyotes in a Cape Breton park.
Mitchell was hiking Tuesday on the Skyline Trail in Cape Breton Highlands National Park when she was attacked by two coyotes. Another hiker, who was walking nearby, heard her cries for help and called 911.
Officers arrived about 3:15 p.m., and one of the coyotes fled into the bush. The other coyote was shot and limped away.
Mitchell was airlifted to a hospital in Halifax, where she died early Wednesday.
"I spoke to her mother late last night and at one point we thought, she was stable," said manager Lisa Weitz, "but she had lost too much blood."
The singer and songwriter, who loved the outdoors, had started her East Coast tour on Oct. 23 in New Brunswick and was scheduled to perform in Sydney tonight. "She had a small break and (she) wanted to go hiking," said Weitz.
Mitchell, whose MySpace photograph has her standing in the woods with a guitar in one hand, released her debut album this March.
A website review describes her album as "a collection of mostly original songs that showcases a range of styles, from folk to country-rock to pop."
Born and raised in Toronto, Mitchell studied music from an early age and graduated in 2008 from Etobicoke School of the Arts.
She was very excited to be touring the Maritimes, said Weitz. "She was just exhilarated to be on the road and performing."
Friends and family are in shock, said Weitz.
In Nova Scotia, Don Anderson, a biologist with that province's Natural Resources Department, said coyote attacks in the area are uncommon, but they do happen from time to time.
An Ontario girl was bitten on the same trail several years ago, Anderson said.
Ethel Merry, owner of the nearby Cheticamp Motel, said the incident was unfortunate but she wasn't surprised to hear about it. She said the motel is about 10 kilometres from the entrance of the park but she often sees coyotes.
"My home is a 100 feet from (the motel) but if it's dark outside, I don't walk alone," she said. "I've seen too many coyotes."
Merry said the attack hasn't fazed locals or park visitors. "Skyline Trail is one of the most beautiful and famous trails in the park. This isn't stopping any hikers," she said.
The park is on the northern tip of Cape Breton Island.
“The Western Coyote is a small critter and lives a solitary lifestyle.”
You’ve been misinformed, all coyotes run in packs. Evenings and mornings you can hear a chorus of them near my house. Most that I have seen are about the size of a medium shepard.
I do agree that I would be much more concerned about cougars than coyotes, or even wolves for that matter.
See:
http://wildbunchrehab.org/encore_coyote.html
and
http://www.westmorelandconservancy.org/CCWolfCoyote.html
My feelings about wolves are conflicted. I actually like them, but I realize that they have a proper place and that proper place is not in densely populated areas or in areas where they pose a significant threat to livestock. Like all predators, they are highly intelligent, learn from experience, and allowing hunting of them, by those so inclined to do so, habituates them to the idea that humans are to be avoided and are not a potential food source.
Personally, I would only kill one in self defense, to protect my animals, or to protect another person. They are too much like dogs, which I really love.
Hating an animal that is just doing what it is designed to do is unfair and stupid. Rather hate the kind of fawning pandering politicians who oppose carrying firearms for self defense or oppose hunting, and the morons with a Disneyesque view of animals as large warm and cuddly stuffed animals that can talk.
Or Canadian firearms laws. Private ownership of handguns there is impossible. If that somebody who heard her screaming had picked up a gun instead of a handphone, she might be still alive.
If that person was a guy, he should have picked up some rocks and sticks or even used his bare hands and saved the 9-11 call for later. That might have saved her.
Where we live, coyotes are seldom seen during the day except for a sighting of what appears to be a underfed/mangy Willie Coyote gene pool. Night time is a different situation.
Less than a half mile away, we have a couple of packs of aggresive coyotes. They like to lure unleashed dogs over various stone walls or into small arroyos and then attack as a pack. There is a strict lease law in this area to protect livestock from feral dogs and “my dog won’t bite you, your dog or your sheep” vicious dogs.
So in the past few years when it is dark early like now, when I take the garbage haulers out to the curb, I turn on the outside lights to drive any legged critters away. Most of the neighbors do the same. One opens his garage doors and turns on a very loud ghetto buster tuned to a hard rock station to clear out the critters.
Another neighbor takes his huge Great Dane out with him to roll the cans to the curb. One night his Great Dane took off after a group coyotes. A couple of minutes later she ran back up the trail with a female doe chasing her.
No, if you search there is at least three or four stories on the net. I had to search a while back to argue with my local warden about the coyotepack all over my yard.
There is a great bear sign about pepper spray and bells.
Wiki lies...continually.
Never be a Wikipedophile!
LoL - yes, I remember that one -
I haven't seen them on my own property, but they are around. I saw one in Ann Arbor city limits.
Maybe I should have said,”they will continue their attempts to get the geese.” Obviously geese have been coexisting with all kinds of predators forever. It is possible that a goose might flog the bejezus out of a coyote also and get away.
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