2 Bellevue coyotes killed by state after nipping children

State wildlife officials say Bellevue's Factoria neighborhood is safe once again after some close calls with coyotes.

It started last Thursday when a woman sitting in her backyard was bit by a coyote.

Then a man reported one trotting into his garage.

This week, a coyote went up to a group of kids waiting for the bus. It bit at their clothes and a backpack.

"The most recent one involved the little girl who was nipped in the hand,” said Captain Jennifer Maurstad of Washington’s Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Coyotes thrive in greenspaces near urban areas and usually live peacefully with humans, according to wildlife experts. A neighborhood coyote can usually be shooed away by waving your arms and shouting.

But when a coyote bites a human, that’s when Maurstad says it has to be removed – or culled.

"This particular coyote, for whatever reason, started associating people with food,” Maurstad said, “and lost its natural fear of people and became aggressive."

Fish and Wildlife sent out teams of two and three “wildlife conflict specialists” to hunt down a pair of coyotes seen together.

The first coyote was killed Wednesday night while authorities say the second escaped. However the state specialists caught up with the bandit by Thursday night.

"They were called in using a predator call,” Maurstad said, “and we were able to lethally remove them, shoot them just simply by free range."

Maurstad says she thinks the Factoria problem is now solved and the state is going to start scaling back from the area.

The two coyotes' story isn't over yet, though.

"They go to a diagnostic lab in eastern Washington, and they get tested for disease and overall health."

She says more coyotes could be around now since it is mating season.