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Coyotes usually don’t go out of their way to attack humans, but you’re going to be in for a fight if you end up being an exception to that rule—a lesson a man in North Carolina learned the hard way after he was forced to strangle one to death with his bare hands.
North America is home to millions of coyotes that can be found in virtually every region of the continent, and the wolf-like creatures are pack hunters and scavengers that don’t really tend to discriminate when it comes to hunting down their next meal.
I was personally less than thrilled to cross paths with one the size of a German Shepherd when walking back from a bar late at night earlier this year, and while I feel like most people would also prefer to unexpectedly end up coming face-to-face with a coyote, unprovoked attacks on humans tend to be few and far between (there were just 142 recorded incidents between 1960 and 2006).
Of course, that also means they aren’t unheard of, and a North Carolina man became the latest person to fall victim to a coyote attack thanks to what transpired last week.
According to The News & Observer, James Pulliam was smoking near his apartment building in the town of Roxboro around 7 P.M. on Friday night when he was overcome with an uneasy feeling, telling the outlet, “I felt something watching me. … I just felt like he was hunting me or something.”
A coyote subsequently emerged from the woods near where he was standing, and he started throwing rocks at the animal and kicking in its direction in an unsuccessful attempt to ward it off before it pounced on him after he fell in the process.
Pulliam says the coyote began biting him and eventually chomped down on his left hand. He realized his attacker had no immediate plans to relent, and after prying the appendage free, he managed to get on top and spent 10 minutes strangling the coyote with his other hand and knee to ensure it was dead.
Police eventually arrived on the scene before he was transported to a nearby hospital to receive a rabies shot (which he said “hurt worse than the attack) along with a round of antibiotics; animal control will test the coyote to determine if it was rabid, which could have been a factor in the largely uncharacteristic attack.