WHAT killed Taylor Mitchell? Experts have new theory about how teen singer was mauled to death 13 yrs ago
NOVA SCOTIA, CANADA: An intriguing new theory has emerged about the coyotes that killed a budding Canadian singer-songwriter while she was out hiking in Nova Scotia 13 years ago. Taylor Mitchell, 19, was alone and hiking in a national park in 2009 when the animals attacked. When other walkers heard her cries, they called for help and arrived to find her bleeding profusely and covered with bite marks. Mitchell succumbed to her injuries in a hospital later, and the attack sparked unfounded theories about the coyotes' behavior and garnered international attention.
According to Daily Mail, researchers now claimed that the coyotes in Cape Breton Highlands National Park had adapted to scarce food supplies before this tragic incident. They developed hunting and killing skills after learning to prey on bigger creatures such as moose. Mitchell may have been a victim of this recently discovered trait, according to Stanley Gehrt, the primary author of an article that was recently published in the Journal of Applied Ecology.
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Mitchell's death is the only the second fatal coyote death in North America. She was preparing to start a solo tour to support a budding musical career at the age of 19. "When [coyotes are] used to taking a 700-pound animal, and you have a single woman walking by herself, it seems perfectly natural to assume that they simply saw her as a novel food item," Gehrt told CTV News Atlantic, adding, "Our argument would be that [the coyotes'] ability to survive... is tied to their ability to switch from one food source to another. And those [coyotes] were eating a diet completely of moose."
"At least one [moose] carcass located during winter coyote tracking showed signs of predation, and on other occasions live, adult moose were observed with fresh wounds consistent with coyote bites in addition to coyote tracks leading to the moose," the study, supported by Parks Canada and the Nova Scotia Department of Lands and Forestry, reportedly read.
Coyotes in the park are not subject to hunting or trapping, so they do not have a natural aversion to people, according to Gehrt. "They had conditioned themselves to go after large prey, and this was something small," he said. In the past, coyote attacks have been caused by exposure to human food, but Mitchell was not one of those victims. According to the study, none of the five coyotes killed after the deadly attack, including the two responsible, showed any signs that they had eaten human food before.
"I don't view the coyotes in Cape Breton as being more dangerous right now than any other coyotes," Gehrt said, concluding, "The Cape Breton system produces some novel types of behavior, but it's temporary. The fact that we haven't had anything like that again puts it into context. It's manageable by increasing people's awareness. We can keep the risk extremely low."