Coyote that bit child was believed to be dead - then was spotted around a California neighborhood

A coyote that bit a 16-month-old child in Los Angeles last month survived being shot by state wildlife officers and roamed the same neighborhood for weeks before being tracked down and euthanized on Tuesday morning.The California Department of Fish and Wildlife confirmed in a statement on Tuesday that officers from the agency and the U.S. Department of Agriculture located and killed the animal early on November 10 in Atwater Village, a community northeast of downtown Los Angeles.“Following subsequent reports of a coyote still alive in the Atwater Village area, CDFW Law Enforcement and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) conducted additional efforts to locate the animal,” the statement read. “During the early morning hours of November 10, 2026, the coyote was located and humanely euthanized due to the continued public safety threat it posed.”The toddler bitten by the coyote on October 16 was treated at a hospital and released, as reported by NBC4 Los Angeles. Later that day, wildlife officers tracked the animal near the 3300 block of Glenhurst Avenue, shot it and announced that it had died after DNA samples confirmed it was the same coyote involved in the attack.However, the agency acknowledged on Tuesday that officers never actually recovered the body.Residents of a Los Angeles neighborhood spent weeks spotting a limping coyote that state wildlife officials had declared dead after it bit a toddler in October — until officers returned on Tuesday morning to locate and euthanize the animal (Getty Images)"While responding to the incident, CDFW wildlife officers encountered the coyote and took action to protect public safety, discharging their firearms and injuring the animal," the agency said in its statement. "Based on the severity of the coyote’s injuries and significant blood loss, officers believed the animal would not survive. A K9 unit was deployed to locate and recover the animal for rabies testing. Despite tracking efforts, officers were unable to locate the coyote after losing its scent. Based on the available evidence at the time, officers believed the animal had succumbed to its injuries."It was not immediately clear how the animal was euthanized on Tuesday or whether its remains were recovered, according to NBC4 Los Angeles.Soon after the initial shooting, residents noticed an injured coyote walking with a pronounced limp in their yards and approaching people on the street. Neighbors recognized the animal — which locals had nicknamed Wiley — as the same coyote that had been a fixture in the neighborhood for months, as reported by the Los Angeles Times.Neighbors in Los Angeles’ Atwater Village recognized the limping animal as a familiar fixture they had nicknamed Wiley, which had been approaching homes for months after a local resident allegedly began feeding it (AFP via Getty Images)Problems with the coyote dated back to around January, when several residents said a local man began feeding it, leading the animal to encroach on homes day and night, according to the Los Angeles Times. One resident told the newspaper he had to yell at the coyote when it approached him, while another saw it chase his cat up a tree. Wildlife officials stated last month that the person who allegedly fed the animal could face a criminal charge.Neighbors eventually contacted wildlife specialist Rebecca Dmytryk, who spent a week tracking and observing the injured animal and concluded it was likely the same coyote that had bitten the toddler, as reported by the Los Angeles Times. Dmytryk suggested the coyote may have imprinted on humans early in its development, possibly at a nearby homeless encampment, altering how it interacted with people."Nobody did a deep enough dive into this animal's history early on, or even after the bite, to understand you're dealing with a completely different animal," Dmytryk told NBC4 Los Angeles. "This is not a wild coyote that you need to shoot from afar. You can put out a trap and put some food in it, and it will walk in."DNA testing had linked the animal to the October attack on a 16-month-old toddler, prompting state and federal officials to resume their search once videos of the surviving coyote surfaced (AFP via Getty Images)Rich Dean, who lives about a block from where the coyote was shot in October, told the Los Angeles Times he had been in repeated contact with a California Department of Fish and Wildlife lieutenant who confirmed he was one of the officers who shot the animal, though they had not found a body. Earlier this month, Dean texted videos of the surviving coyote to the officer. On Monday, Dean messaged the lieutenant to report that the animal was inside a crawlspace at a construction site and sent a location pin at the officer's request, according to text messages reviewed by the newspaper.Dean expressed frustration after learning the coyote had been killed on Tuesday morning, saying that neighbors had complained to multiple agencies for months without resolution and had begun discussing moving the animal to a sanctuary once they realized it was alive. He said officials “could have been straight with us” about not knowing for certain whether the coyote had died in October.“I feel like every part of government has just completely failed the community and completely failed the animal,” Dean said. “There’s just nothing good about this.”Wildlife officials reiterated standard safety guidelines, urging residents never to feed coyotes and to keep small children and pets supervised outdoors (Getty Images)Following the incident, wildlife officials advised people never to feed or attempt to tame coyotes, as doing so can lead to dangerous encounters with pets, livestock or small children. Residents are also urged to keep small children and pets supervised outdoors, bring pets inside at night and avoid leaving pet food, open garbage containers, fallen fruit, uncovered compost, water sources or bird feeders outside where they can attract coyotes or their prey. Officials recommend installing motion-sensitive lighting, trimming ground-level shrubbery, securing enclosures for poultry and small livestock, and making loud noises or throwing rocks in a coyote's direction if followed. They also suggest immediately reporting any attacks on people to police or the Department of Fish and Wildlife.