A toddler was seriously injured during an attack by a coyote on the sand north of the pier in Huntington Beach Thursday night, April 28, authorities said.
The girl was with her mom when the attack happened about 9:45 p.m., said Jennifer Carey, a Huntington Beach spokeswoman. The girl was hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries.
Later during the night, officers found and shot two coyotes, killing one near Pacific Coast Highway and Goldenwest Avenue, Lt. Thoby Archer said. Officers do not believe that coyote was responsible for the attack.
The second coyote that was on the beach, injured by gunfire, ran away from officers and disappeared near the wetlands.
“We were unable to shoot it again, because of backdrop issues,” Archer said. “We’re fairly certain we wounded it pretty good.”
By Friday evening, that coyote had been found beneath a trailer in a trailer park by officers with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and Orange County animal control and euthanized, police said.
“The carcass will be sent to a laboratory in Sacramento where wildlife forensics scientists will work on it Saturday and attempt to compare the samples of DNA from either of the carcasses to that of the samples taken from the victim’s bite wounds,” police said in a news release.
“Both will also be tested for rabies, which is done post-mortem, which usually takes a few extra days,” the release said.
Further information about the girl was not released by police.
In a video from a Surfline.com camera that shows the attack, a woman is holding the toddler and taking selfies, with another person and child a few feet away just north of the Huntington Beach Pier.
The toddler at one point slips a few steps behind the woman. The coyote stops just in front of her for a split moment before leaping on top and tackling the toddler.
The woman is unaware of the attack, facing the other direction toward the ocean. The attack happens for more than 10 seconds. The woman walks toward the toddler, with the coyote running away.
They walk a few steps before the woman stoops down to check on the toddler, just as bystanders walk over as the coyote circles back nearby.
She holds the toddler in her arms as they walk away with the other person and child and the bystanders, one who darts across the sand and out of the camera’s view.
The coyote comes back a third time, searching the area near the shoreline as another couple walks up, also seemingly unaware of its presence.
Andy Verdone, a surf coach at Huntington Beach High School, said in his decades coaching on the sand in the area he’s never heard of coyotes on the beach.
“I’ve never, ever, ever seen a coyote on the beach or anywhere close,” he said. “I was purely shocked. I hope the little girl is fine.”
But others, local surfers, have taken note of coyotes’ increased presence recently on the sand.
“Over the last few weeks we have seen a coyote roaming the beach, from the pier all the way to Goldenwest,” said Huntington Beach surfer Louis Rice.
“Locals had been very concerned about it, and had voiced their concern and fear of an attack on a human, so this was terrifying but not surprising,” he said.
Sightings of coyotes in the city are common, Lt. Archer said, because the city has a large park and the wetlands, with coyote sightings at the beach increasing recently.
He warned residents to be aware of their surroundings when hanging out at the beach.
“This was a unique circumstance where we’ve had someone attacked,” Archer said. “These are wild animals and they can be unpredictable, like sharks and stingrays in the water.”
While experts say attacks on humans are uncommon, there have been other recent Orange County attacks. In 2018, a 3-year-old was attacked in Placentia, and a 91-year-old suffered a bite in 2020 in Laguna Beach.
A report of Southern California coyote attacks from 2012 to 2016 by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife identified 50 instances where people were bitten.
Eric Strauss, president’s professor of biology for Loyola Marymount University and Director of LMU’s Center for Urban Resilience, said coyote populations are increasing.
As the pandemic unfolded and people frequented less public places, coyotes were observed in more locations, even in broad daylight, he noted.
“Cities are rich with food resources for wildlife, so it is likely that the lingering drought may change the menu and shift their foraging choices,” he said in an email.
It’s not unusual for coyotes to forage on public beaches because the sand is often filled with natural food resources along the surf line and what people left behind from picnics, Strauss said.
“It was relatively late at night, when coyotes are typically very active in urban habitats – especially if the beach was otherwise devoid of people,” he said of the Huntington Beach attack.
The professor was not surprised the woman seemingly didn’t notice the struggle nearby.
“Beaches are noisy with surf and wind sounds, so it would be easy for a human to not hear coyote activity, or even a struggle,” he said.
He did not want to comment on the nature of the attack or motivation of the coyote, because the information about this incident is still incomplete.
Coyotes are typically spotted more frequently venturing into urban areas in search of food, water and shelter during spring, putting pets and sometimes people at an increased risk of attack, according to experts.
Huntington Beach police asked that anyone who spots a coyote in their city call them at 714-960-8811.
Reporter Quinn Wilson contributed to this report.
