Child Attacked By Coyote On Popular Provincetown Beach

PROVINCETOWN, MA — Park rangers are attempting to locate the body of a coyote to test it for rabies after they say it bit a young boy on a Provincetown beach Wednesday night.

The child was taken to Cape Cod Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

National Park Services said park rangers 'destroyed' the coyote responsible and are now looking to locate the body.

Park rangers say they have responded to multiple incidents of coyotes acting aggressively towards people in attempts to get food.

NPS says the erratic behavior starts with people feeding coyotes intentionally by leaving food out, or accidentally by not removing food scraps from the beach.

They say coyotes then become habituated and bold in attempts to obtain food.

"When wild animals lose their fear of people, they behave unpredictably and aggressively, resulting in injuries to people and a sad ending for the habituated animal," NPS said in a press release.

The NPS warns not to feed any wild animal and to alert rangers of coyote sightings to the dispatch center at 617-242-5659.