Police Encourage Learning About Coyotes Amid Recent Concerns

ROLLING MEADOWS, IL — The Rolling Meadows Police Department encourages residents to learn about urban coyotes after several recent calls, concerns regarding coyotes in the area, and widely covered reports about encounters with coyotes. The police department also encourages residents to learn how to keep yourself and your pets safe, and has provided links to resources that can help.

One of the resources the police department mentioned in its Wednesday Facebook post, the Urban Coyote Research Project, includes information on urban coyotes, specifically "Community-Level Strategies for Urban Coyote Management.

In addition, the project shares (dated) statistics on attacks across the Chicago Metropolitan Area reported , and the nature, patterns, and prevention of attacks.

Between 1990 and 2004, there were "more accounts of attacks during the late fall, winter, and early spring than during the warmer months of the year," according to the Urban Coyote Research Project. During that time period, the cities and township with the most reported attacks were Arlington Heights, Chicago, Geneva, North Shore, and Palatine, according to the project.

This resource and others, according to the police department, can also be found on the City of Rolling Meadows quick links page.

The police department's post comes less than two weeks after a coyote was captured in Chicago on Jan. 9. The coyote was captured while being chased by Chicago police and animal control officers for several blocks on Chicago's North Side after a 6-year-old boy was attacked by one, the Associated Press reported. It was shot with a tranquilizer dart and taken in an animal control van to the animal rehabilitation center. DNA tests to determine if the captured animal is the same animal that attacked the boy will take weeks to complete, a city animal control official said on Jan. 10.

More:

• Coyote Captured After 2 Attacks In Chicago
• DNA Test Done To Confirm Captured Coyote's Links To Attacks
• Coyote Attack Kills Dog In Palatine Backyard

Jenny Schlueter of the Chicago Animal Care and Control said another coyote was spotted in the same part of the city during the night of Jan. 9, but it avoided being captured. Animal control officers continued to search for coyotes in the Lincoln Park neighborhood where one attacked the boy, as well as downtown where a coyote was spotted and a man reported he was also bitten that week, AP reported.