Hunter Attacked by Coyote He Fooled with His Turkey Call

A man hunting wild turkeys in Maine was trying to lure a turkey into the open with his imitation of a turkey's call — but his mimicry was just a little too good.

A man hunting wild turkeys in Maine was trying to lure a turkey into the open with his imitation of a turkey's call — but his mimicry was just a little too good.

Bill Robinson's mimicry instead lured a turkey-hungry coyote that lunged at and bit him, mistaking him for a turkey.

“I’ll never forget looking up and seeing a jaw full of teeth coming at me,” Robinson told the Bangor Daily News the day after the attack.

Robinson, 39, had been hunting in Down East Maine near the Canadian border just before dawn. He told the Bangor Daily News he had put his turkey decoy in a field and then hid a ways back in some woods, behind a thick spruce tree.

"That coyote came up the edge of the field and was on one side of that tree, with me on the other," Robinson said.

"The distance involved was only about four feet. But that tree was so thick that he couldn’t see me, and I couldn’t see him. He was determined to have turkey for breakfast and was also determined that the sound he heard was a hen turkey," he said.

"When he bit down on my upper arm, he went through four layers — a heavy jacket, a sweatshirt, a long-sleeve shirt and a T-shirt," he said. "As I peeled off each layer there were two holes in each one. When I got to my arm, it was just burning and bleeding out of two holes."

He said the coyote fled once it realized it hadn't just chomped down on a turkey.

Once the coyote realized it had jumped a human, not a hen, it sprinted away.

"It was as shocked and surprised to see me as I was to see it," Robinson said. "I hit him in the haunch with a few pellets from my turkey load, just to say goodbye.”

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