Imagine a picturesque day: you go down to the beach with your pup, you find pieces of old driftwood and toss it around as Spot runs and fetches it for you – all is well in the world. For most people, that scene is something they’ve seen or participated in before. For one woman, it was a life-and-death situation.
A couple of fishermen saw a woman with her dog on a beach in Cape Cod, but all was not as it seemed.
The men didn’t think much of it, but after watching the scene unfold a bit longer, it made total sense. The woman down on the beach is Marcy Sterlis, an NYC resident who took a little vacation that ended up with a scary situation.
Mary’s trip found her in Provincetown at Race Point Beach.
As she walked down the beach, she noticed that a strange animal was approaching her. It looked like a dog, but it clearly wasn’t. The animal was a wild coyote chasing her. It ended up chasing her from the dunes all the way down to the waterfront.
With a stick in her hand, she swung at the animal as it crept closer.
Coyotes are usually pretty timid animals, but this one was determined. As she defended herself, she expected the animal to run away after the first swipe or two, but it didn’t. Time after time, it came back, trying to approach her and get around to her blind side. Thankfully, she had the water to help keep the coyote from getting the drop on her.
Coyotes rarely interact with humans like this, but thankfully she was able to think on her feet and grab the stick as she did.
Although coyotes have been known to attack humans (and pets) and as such are a potential danger to people, especially children, risks are minimal and we feel that the majority of attack incidents could be reduced or prevented through modification of human behavior. – Urban Coyote Research
Mary admits that she didn’t know what was going to happen if she didn’t get rescued.
When the story of the crazy coyote came out, it prompted people to take a look at the potential cause of the problem. The dunes area is a perfect habitat for them, but it didn’t describe why they felt so comfortable walking up to humans like that.
Not that long ago, someone had been bitten on a nearby beach by a coyote just like this one.
With that info, things clicked. People on the beaches had been FEEDING the wild coyotes, promoting this behavior! With the way the coyote had attacked Mary had been acting, it probably had those types of interactions with humans as well. It’s a dangerous thing to feed wild animals like that.
Thankfully, Mary was safe and the fishermen dropped her off down the beach and away from the little creature.
It was a good thing she had someone there to hear her cries for help!
Check out the video the fishermen captured of the incident below!
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