A new and unusual theory has emerged about the coyotes that killed a young Toronto woman on a Nova Scotia hiking trail 13 years ago.
Researchers say that on Oct. 27, 2009, when singer-songwriter Taylor Mitchell set out alone in Cape Breton Highlands National Park, resident coyotes had adapted to a limited food supply by learning how to hunt and kill moose — a trait believed to be extraordinary among these “generalist carnivores.”
Stanley Gehrt, lead author of a paper recently published in the Journal of Applied Ecology, said that with the park’s coyotes preying on such a large animal, it stands to reason they would be less inhibited about killing a human….