Travelers who take Highway 1 in Marin County, CA can expect beautiful sunsets, corkscrew turns and hallucinating coyotes chewing on their cars. On that particular stretch of highway a coyote, or possibly two, have been running up to cars causing the driver to stop, the
Pacific Sun reported. From there, the coyote then stare down the vehicle and possibly attack it before going back into the wilderness. Most of these incidents have taken place at night. According to one driver who drives down this stretch of road regularly, "It's a terrifying, yet beautiful thing to behold."
Attacks are happening often enough that the Marin Humane Society is involved. They are trying to identify the cause of the coyotes behavior and are investigating several possibilities. The first possibility is rabies. The disease causes an animal to act strangely and become very aggressive before they die. But Lisa Bloch, director of marketing and communications for Marin Humane Society, told the Pacific Sun that rabies isn't the most likely culprit. Animals with rabies will act strangely in the later stages of the disease. The fact these attacks have been happening for the past three weeks rules out rabies.
It's more likely that a drive confused the coyote for a stray dog or threw food out the window, not knowing a coyote was nearby. The third, and possibly the strangest reason for this behavior is 'magic mushrooms'. The area around Highway 1 is known for having a patch of amanita muscaria, a psychoactive fungus. It's possible the coyotes have been munching on these mushrooms and getting high. The Marin Humane Society is continuing to investigate the strange behavior. They're asking the public to give them a call if they notice the coyote or coyotes on Highway 1.
Attacks are happening often enough that the Marin Humane Society is involved. They are trying to identify the cause of the coyotes behavior and are investigating several possibilities. The first possibility is rabies. The disease causes an animal to act strangely and become very aggressive before they die. But Lisa Bloch, director of marketing and communications for Marin Humane Society, told the Pacific Sun that rabies isn't the most likely culprit. Animals with rabies will act strangely in the later stages of the disease. The fact these attacks have been happening for the past three weeks rules out rabies.
It's more likely that a drive confused the coyote for a stray dog or threw food out the window, not knowing a coyote was nearby. The third, and possibly the strangest reason for this behavior is 'magic mushrooms'. The area around Highway 1 is known for having a patch of amanita muscaria, a psychoactive fungus. It's possible the coyotes have been munching on these mushrooms and getting high. The Marin Humane Society is continuing to investigate the strange behavior. They're asking the public to give them a call if they notice the coyote or coyotes on Highway 1.
