Aggressive Yellowstone coyote euthanized

Town Crier “Briefs from the Region” (1) – 1/21/21

We’ve all heard the adage “a fed bear is a dead bear,” but in a recent case at Yellowstone National Park, it was actually a coyote that was victim to too much human interaction. Last month, Yellowstone rangers had to put down a coyote that had become food aggressive—on several occasions, it had run directly up to humans to snatch food from their hands. After unsuccessful attempts to adversely train the animal—usually by frightening it away from human interaction—the coyote continued its aggressive and dangerous behavior, leading park rangers to make the difficult decision to put the animal down. “Coyotes are incredibly smart animals,” Yellowstone National Park Ranger Tim Townsend told KRTV. “It doesn’t take very many times for an animal to get fed before it’s probably its death sentence.”