Coyote struck by car, killed
NPS photo by Bill Sloan
DEATH VALLEY, Calif. – A coyote was struck by a car and killed on Christmas Day in Death Valley National Park. The coyote had been begging for food along Badwater Road near Golden Canyon for the preceding months.
“We tried hazing it away from the road by shooting it with a paintball gun and pepper spray,” said Superintendent Mike Reynolds. “The only thing the coyote learned was to stay away from park rangers!”
It is illegal to feed wildlife within Death Valley National Park. Feeding wildlife often later causes that animal’s death. Wildlife that have been fed by people learn to cross roads when they see a car coming. They learn that this behavior sometimes triggers the car to stop and feed them.
Death Valley National Park is the homeland of the Timbisha Shoshone and preserves natural resources, cultural resources, exceptional wilderness, scenery, and learning experiences within the nation’s largest conserved desert landscape and some of the most extreme climate and topographic conditions on the planet. Learn more at www.nps.gov/deva.
