‘Relentless’ coyote circled woman for 10 minutes on Cape Cod beach before rescue came

A Cape Cod tourist is crediting two fishermen with rescuing her from a “relentless” coyote that circled her as she walked alone on the beach.

It happened Thursday morning at Race Point Beach in Massachusetts and video shows Marcy Sterlis was backed up against the ocean as she tried to escape the aggressive coyote.

Sterlis is seen swinging a large stick to keep it away, but the coyote continues to circle back on her.

The standoff lasted about 10 minutes and the animal came within a foot at points, she said in an interview recorded by WFXT.

“I sat down to put my sneakers back on and as I was getting up I look over and this coyote was four or five feet from me,” she told the station. “It was just coming at me, kept coming at me. My voice is really hoarse from screaming so much. ... I was so scared.”

Sterlis, who lives in Manhattan, says her screams attracted the attention of two anglers. They recorded the video and are heard calling authorities to report a woman was being attacked by a coyote and “she’s trying to beat it off with a stick.”

Andrew DeCarton — one of the two anglers— said they first tried slapping their oars on the side of the boat to frighten the coyote, WHDH reported. “The noise really seemed to kind of deter him. You could tell that this animal was very hungry and very persistent,” he told the station.

Sterlis says she waded out to their boat to escape the coyote.

“The fishermen that rescued me, had me wade out to their boat and brought me back to safety at the swimming area near the lifeguard stand,” she posted on Facebook.

“Major props to these guys for hearing my screams and responding. This coyote was relentless, and I don’t know what I would have done without them.”

Multiple incidents of coyotes “acting assertively toward people” have been reported this summer at Cape Cod National Seashore, the National Park Service said Saturday.

Park rangers blame the encounters on “people feeding the coyotes intentionally or inadvertently by leaving food out,” according to an alert issued over the weekend. “When wild animals lose their fear of people, they can behave unpredictably and aggressively, leading to injuries to people and a sad ending for the animal,” the alert said.

In May 2020, park rangers “shot and killed a coyote that had been acting aggressively around people” near Herring Cove Beach in the park, according to the National Park Service.

Days earlier, a coyote bit a visitor on the beach and killed a dog, park officials said.

Male coyotes can reach nearly 50 pounds in the region and are known to “maintain a territory” of up to 30 square miles, the state says.

This story was originally published July 30, 2021 at 2:13 PM with the headline "‘Relentless’ coyote circled woman for 10 minutes on Cape Cod beach before rescue came."