Captured coyote undergoes DNA test to confirm if it bit 6-year-old boy

A coyote captured this week will undergo a DNA test to confirm if it is the same coyote responsible for a recent attack on a 6-year-old boy in Lincoln Park.

The testing is expected to take several weeks, according to the Commission on Animal Care and Control spokeswoman Jennifer Schlueter.

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

The coyote is currently on its way to a rehabilitation center, where it was to undergo further evaluation and DNA testing, Schlueter said.

At that time of capture, officials were still responding to reports of other coyotes roaming the city.

It was all set in motion by two separate coyote incidents — the boy bitten near Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum on Wednesday afternoon and, a few hours later, 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 attacked.

Chicago Animal Care and Control

“The caretaker said she was kicking the coyote and yelling really loudly, screaming the entire time,” said Kelley Gandurski, head of Animal Care and Control.

Gandurski said there had been reports of a limping coyote roaming the area, but witnesses didn’t notice a limp in the coyote that attacked the boy.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot Friday said she’s confident Animal Care and Control did everything right in response to the coyote-biting incidents.

“From everything I’ve read and everything I’ve heard from experts on coyotes, the coyote’s behavior in attacking the young boy and the other individual [is] highly unusual behavior. Most times, coyotes are very skittish around humans,” Lightfoot said.

“But given that, I do feel very confident in the way that Animal Care and the police department have responded. The fact that we were able to, fairly quickly, identify the location of the coyote, get him into custody without doing further harm” is a major accomplishment.

The mayor added Animal Care and Control officials are “still out there being diligent because there’s lots of different sightings. Whether there’s multiple ones or it’s just sightings of the same one, we have to remain diligent and we will.”