Three young children bitten by coyotes in Montreal over the past week: police

MONTREAL – Three young children in Montreal were bitten by coyotes within the span of a week, city police said Sunday.

Officials said all three incidents occurred in parks in the Ahuntsic-Cartierville borough in the north of the city.

The most recent attack occurred Saturday when a three-year-old boy was wounded by a coyote at about 6:30 p.m., police said, and was taken to hospital with minor injuries as a precautionary measure.

A boy and a girl, both age 5, were also bitten in separate incidents last week.

Police said they both suffered minor injuries.

Health officials specified that the boy suffered a bite to the calf, and the girl had a lower-body injury.

The City of Montreal said in a statement that it was taking several measures to address the situation, notably by installing cameras and bait.

"A scaring campaign is being conducted at Parc des Hirondelles and in the Papineau Avenue corridor to Saint-Lucie Park, including Champdore Park," the statement read.

The city launched a coyote management program earlier this year amid a rise in the number of sightings, saying on its website earlier this month that some 600 coyote sightings had been reported in just under a year — most in the Ahuntsic-Cartierville and Villeray–Saint-Michel–Parc-Extension boroughs.

"People forget it, but coyotes have always been urban animals," city biologist Frederic Bussiere said in the article published by the city on July 13.

They're found in every North American city, but "we don't notice them because they've chosen to adopt a nocturnal lifestyle in order to avoid encounters with humans, which they fear," he said.

While attacks are rare, the article noted that "certain individuals have become less fearful in the metropolis" in the last year.

The city recommended people keep their dogs on leashes and refrain from approaching coyotes in order to minimize incidents, and noted that many people end up inadvertantly feeding them by leaving out cat food or garbage.

Bussiere suggested that anyone who sees a coyote should remain calm and give it room to run away.

He also recommended people raise their arms, yell or throw objects so the coyote retains a fear of humans.

Anyone who spots a coyote in Montreal is asked to report it through the city's coyote hotline.