Camper bitten by Cape Breton coyote recounts moments leading up to attack

A camper who was biking through Cape Breton Highlands National Park last week says his 15-second encounter with an aggressive coyote that bit him doesn’t define the mostly “peaceful experience” he had on the Cabot Trail.

Alex Radu of Ontario said he was stopped at the MacIntosh Brook campsite last week taking in views of the moon when the coyote appeared “out of nowhere.”

“In the dark, I could barely see it. But it came right at me,” Radu said in an interview with CBC News.

“And I did what you’re supposed to do. I got big. I tried to get aggressive. I stomped. I yelled and it backed off a couple of metres and came back and we went through that dance a couple of times.”

Radu said when it became clear the coyote kept getting closer and started snapping at him, he decided to bolt, “which I know is what you’re not supposed to do, but at that point, it didn’t feel like I had many other options left.”

“I didn’t have any food on me, but I ran to the closest building about 50 metres away at MacIntosh Brook, got inside to safety,” he said.

“The coyote was no longer with me, so at some point he gave up or lost interest.”

But a few moments later, he noticed that his pant leg was shredded and he found bite marks on his leg.

“Relatively minor wounds, but they were bleeding and they needed some treatment,” Radu said, adding he couldn’t say when in their interaction the bite happened.

Radu said it had been so dark the night of the attack, it took him a while to process what was happening.

“I felt a lot of fear. I felt I was flooded with adrenalin and I was just playing out all the different ways this could potentially go in my head as I was doing it,” he said.

Radu said he reported the incident to park staff the next morning and got help at a nearby health centre.

“They helped me clean up the wound. They helped me bandage it and they gave me the first dose of a rabies vaccine, which we’re doing as a precautionary thing,” Radu said.

Parks Canada said staff killed a coyote on Saturday in the MacIntosh Brook area, but it’s not clear if the coyote was the same one that bit Radu.

Keep facing animal, back away slowly: ecologist

Parks Canada said in an email the coyote “repeatedly approached patrolling staff, indicating a loss of natural fear toward humans and behaviour consistent with food conditioning.”

Radu said he has mixed feelings about it.

“I don’t think [park staff] had much of a choice but to euthanize it, to kill it. But at the same time, there’s a part of me that feels some compassion for the coyote and that if it was fed and had interactions with humans, in some ways that wasn’t really its fault,” Radu said.

Allison Moody, an ecologist with Parks Canada, said staff are still patrolling.

She said MacIntosh Brook, Lone Shieling, and nearby look-offs are still closed.

Moody said if an aggressive coyote is not backing down even if you’re making noise and making yourself look bigger, it’s important to keep facing the animal and back away slowly.

“And then try and get into the shelter, into a car, into a vehicle, something like that where you can get away from the animal,” Moody said, adding that encounters should be reported to park staff.

‘Cool experiences,’ despite bite

Moody said bear spray, if you know how to use it safely, and walking sticks can also help keep a coyote away.

“You have to be a little bit careful with bear spray. The animals might need to be a lot closer to you than you really would like. And you have to be really aware of the wind,” Moody said.

Moody said staff are doing their best to keep visitors safe from coyotes.

“The leaves are just starting to turn, so it’s starting to get really pretty here. So it is kind of coming up to peak leaf season. So please come anyways,” she said.

Despite the bite, Radu said he had a good time at Cape Breton Highlands National Park.

“Even earlier that day, like a few hours before, I was having the most peaceful experience doing a cold dip in one of the pools in the creek right by MacIntosh Brook,” he said.

“This whole trip was not just that one incident. There were a lot of really cool experiences and a lot of beautiful moments outside of this over the course of the week I spent there.”

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