May 04, 2021 - 7:59 AM
VICKSBURG, Miss. - Officials are telling people to be on the lookout for coyotes at a Civil War battlefield that is a national park in Mississippi.
Brendan Wilson is chief of interpretation, education and partnership at the Vicksburg National Military Park. He told the Vicksburg Post that a coyote was spotted during the weekend in the park, which is a popular place for people to walk and run.
“It hasn’t attacked anybody," Wilson said.
He said the park’s biologist indicated there will be more activity from coyotes this time of year. He also said people need to make noise if they see one.
“Make yourself big; that’s the type of thing that scares coyotes away,” Wilson said. “This is the time of year when they may be active breeding, they might have pups or they might be getting food from a source close to people.”
Vicksburg resident Lesley Silver said she was walking in the military park in early March when she spotted a coyote.
“He was 6 feet away from me and he had his eyes looking straight at my eyes," Silver told the newspaper.
She said she stomped at the animal and yelled at it but it did not move.
“There was no stick, nothing around, so I took my purse off from around my neck and I started twirling it so there would be a barrier between his head and my body,” Silver said.
News from © The Associated Press, 2021