DNA tests confirm coyote captured earlier this month bit 6-year-old boy

DNA tests conducted on a coyote captured Jan. 9 confirmed that it was the same coyote responsible for a recent attack on a 6-year-old boy in Lincoln Park, according to a statement from the Chicago Animal Care and Control.

After an evaluation, officials found the coyote had been shot in the chest with a BB gun, “which could have caused the limp in its movements as well as the aggressive behavior,” the CACC said.

The coyote was shot with a tranquilizer dart the night of Jan. 9 in the 1700 block of North Dayton Street after inspectors were called for an injured coyote nearby, the CACC said.

It was all set in motion by two separate coyote incidents — the boy bitten near Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum on the afternoon of Jan. 8 and, a few hours later, when a man reported to police that a coyote bit him on the buttocks.

The boy was bitten multiple times about 4 p.m. He was on a walking path just north of the nature museum entrance when he ran up a hill a few steps ahead of his caretaker and came face-to-face with the coyote, which then attacked him.

Officials did not say if the coyote was the same coyote who bit the man on the buttocks. The coyote will remain at a local wildlife rehabilitation center, the CACC said.

“Coyotes are common throughout the Chicagoland area and protected under the Illinois Wildlife Code. Residents should always take caution if they encounter a coyote and notify CACC by calling 311. It remains extremely rare for a coyote to approach or bite a person,” CACC said.