Coyotes bite 5-year-old boy, man in attacks in Chicago

Coyotes visit Wrigley Field

A 5-year-old boy and 32-year-old man were bitten by coyotes in Chicago, leaving residents in the nation's third-largest city on high alert for the wild dogs. The boy was hospitalized Wednesday after being bitten multiple times by a coyote in the city's lakefront Lincoln Park, Chicago police said in a statement. He is said to be in stable condition. Shortly after the boy was hurt, Chicago police reported another coyote incident. A 32-year-old man was walking on a sidewalk in Streeterville, a neighborhood near downtown, when a coyote came from behind and bit him on his backside, police said. The unidentified victim was brought to the hospital and is in good condition. Local animal control said an increase in coyote sightings is due to animals' following the Chicago River in search of food, according to NBC Chicago. Experts told the local station the coyotes are coming closer to downtown and becoming more aggressive because they can't find food. Stanley Gehrt, a professor of wildlife ecology at Ohio State University who studies coyotes in the area, told WTTW, Chicago's public TV station, that he estimates there are about 4,000 coyotes in Illinois' highly populated Cook County, which is home to over 5 million people...MORE