What started out for Rebekah Choltus as a typical walk in Southwest Portland ended in a rush to the veterinarian’s office, a stretch of restless nights and eight stitches for her 3-year-old goldendoodle Bob.
The two were making their way along the Wildwood Trail, near the Hoyt Arboretum and Washington Park’s archery range, when Bob yelped in pain.
A coyote stood a few feet away. Bob’s white fur was coated with red near his tail. Choltus tried to shoo the coyote away, but it began to trot toward them.
“I thought, ‘This is a new one. He’s coming toward us,’” said Choltus, 55. “I decided to walk backwards and keep eye contact with the coyote, to kind of give a message: ‘Don’t you come near us.’”
The unprovoked attack last week rattled Choltus and others in her Arlington Heights neighborhood.
Andy Russell, who lives near Choltus, said a few days later a coyote darted out of a bush as he walked with his English springer spaniel, Lyra, on a leash near the arboretum visitor center. The coyote didn’t attack but followed them for at least a mile down Beach Trail, said Russell, 59, even though he tried to scare it off.
A coyote biting a dog is rare, but the trailing behavior — called “escorting” — isn’t unusual in spring and summer as coyotes protect their pups, said Zuriel van Belle, the director of the Portland Urban Coyote Project.
“They find a safe place to have those pups, and they keep them there until usually about the end of the summer, when the pups are old enough to venture out more on their own,” van Belle said.
Van Belle’s team of researchers tracks coyote sightings in the metro area through community reports. So far, the organization has received at least one other bite report this year, a non-fatal puncture in another dog near Tigard, van Belle said.
The project typically receives around 2,000 coyote reports each year, according to data van Belle shared with The Oregonian/OregonLive. That number spiked in 2024, when it documented more than 3,000 coyote sightings across the metro area.
The uptick doesn’t necessarily mean the coyote population is booming, she said. Limited food available to coyotes, including rodents and food scraps, keeps the population in check naturally, she said. The increase last year could reflect families of coyotes being more active and visible or more people learning about the coyote project, she said.
“We’re not confident saying it has anything to do with the coyotes themselves,” she said.
What scared Choltus was the aggressiveness — and unexpectedness — of the coyote that bit her dog last Thursday. She’s often seen coyotes on her walks and never had a problem before.
She had Bob on a tight leash close to her hip and said the 80-pound goldendoodle was twice the size of the coyote — though she noted the coyote “was the biggest one I’ve ever seen.”
Choltus said the coyote trailed them for about half a mile as she walked slowly backward, keeping Bob close and her eyes on the coyote. When they reached a bend in the trail, she told Bob, “Dude, we are gonna run.”
They didn’t look back until they reached the top of a hill and Choltus was sure they’d lost the coyote.
Choltus rushed Bob to the vet’s office, where he received stitches for three different coyote bites between his hind legs.
The vet told Choltus that the location of the bites signaled that the coyote, perhaps protecting a nearby den, felt threatened. Choltus also noted that she and Bob had walked out-and-back on the Wildwood Trail as opposed to their usual loop, which means they might have passed the den twice.
Van Belle, of the Portland Urban Coyote Project, said dog owners should be aware of the seasonal changes in coyote habits and take precautions, but hopes people won’t be frightened. She suggested using a shorter leash during this period, keeping cats indoors, monitoring backyards and switching up walking routes if a coyote seems to be lingering in a certain area.
“There’s very likely a coyote family that thinks of your neighborhood — wherever you are — as their home, too,” van Belle said. “This time of year is a good time for grace and space for coyotes.”
Dave Keiter, a district wildlife biologist with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, said it’s difficult to measure exactly how many coyotes roam Portland’s streets each year. Still, experts believe the population is stable.
Coyotes are territorial, Keiter said, and they occupied all areas of the city within 10 years of their colonization of Portland in the 1980s. Pack sizes fluctuate within and across years, but as pups are reared, older generations disperse out of the city, which keeps the overall population steady, he said.
Larger dogs are typically at less risk than small dogs and cats, Keiter said, and people are at “incredibly low” risk. He warned against feeding coyotes, which could lead them to associate humans with food and cause repeated approaches.
The Department of Fish and Wildlife recommends “hazing” — clapping or yelling, throwing small sticks or stones, blowing whistles or air horns, or using pepper spray — to scare a coyote off.
“Coyotes tend to be pretty wary of humans naturally,” Keiter said. “Hazing simply reinforces that.”
Despite that wariness, coyotes are well-adapted to urban life in Portland and metro areas nationwide, he said. Cities — often rife with bushes, trees, garbage, squirrels, and rabbits — make for attractive habitats for coyotes.
“Whether you like coyotes or dislike coyotes, they’re a fact of life in urban areas,” he said. “They’re not going anywhere. So the best thing that you can do is learn about coyotes so that you understand what the risks are … and the easy little steps that you can take to reduce conflict.”
After the attack on Bob, some Arlington Heights residents have begun taking such steps.
Nancy Loeb now dresses her two dachshunds, Clover and Truffle, in spiked vests. She also bought a “very loud” whistle and capsaicin spray, she said.
Loeb, 73, said she hopes others will take similar measures. That way, dogs and their owners will no longer have to fear coyotes. Instead, she said, “They need to be afraid of us.”
Choltus said Bob is on the mend. He’s been walking daily, but the two haven’t yet returned to the trails. Choltus doesn’t know when they will.
“I hear a strange noise, and I immediately think there’s a coyote,” she said. “It’s gonna be a long time for me.”
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