Weekend Coyote Hunt Set After Attack on San Clemente Girl, 5. : Ecology: Officials, alarmed by the increased aggression, hope to kill 8 to 10 of the animals to scare others away from residential areas.

SAN CLEMENTE —  San Clemente officials on Wednesday scheduled a coyote hunt for the weekend as the parents of a 5-year-old who was attacked in her back yard kept a careful watch on their daughter for any sign that she needed to undergo rabies treatment.

Natalie Carrick was playing in her sandbox Saturday afternoon when a coyote approached and attacked, biting her on the torso as she scrambled for safety.

Her mother, Lori Carrick, rushed home from a next-door neighbor’s house when she heard her daughter scream.

“I saw Natalie on top of the swing set and the coyote standing there and told her, ‘Don’t worry. It’s just a coyote,’ ” Lori Carrick said. “But when I took her down and went to comfort her, I pulled up her shirt and saw four puncture wounds and some scratch marks.”

The 2 p.m. attack was the third to occur in the Forster Canyon neighborhood in 10 days and the first on a human. Alarmed by the increased aggression on the part of an apparently growing coyote population, local officials called a City Hall meeting at which they decided to stage a late-night coyote hunt in the remote canyons on the outskirts of town.

The aim of the hunt will be to scare coyotes off, not wipe them out, said Gene Begnell, a city animal control spokesman. Begnell said the group will attempt to kill about eight to 10 of them and distribute the bodies throughout the canyon area as a warning to other wild canines.

“There is a theory--possibly folklore--that if you spread the carcasses in selective areas, it will dissuade others from coming around,” Begnell said. “We are not into genocide of the coyote population. It’s not effective anyway.”

Animal control officials have learned that killing coyotes en masse does little to limit populations in the long run, Begnell said. The habitat tends to support a given number of the wild animals and others will quickly move in and take over if their competition is wiped out, he said.

Of the three recent incidents, two were attacks on dogs, said J.R. Kersey, an animal control officer.

Natalie’s father, Robert Carrick, said he welcomed the city’s strategy.

“I think we need to instill the fear of man in them again,” he said. “They get crowded into residential areas and they get used to us and then we have a problem.”

While the 40-pound kindergarten student seems to have recovered emotionally from her frightening incident, her parents were closely watching for any symptoms that may indicate an onset of rabies. Those include headache and fever, followed by a tingling sensation at the site of the bite.

“Our daughter is fine, she’s back in school and not afraid of dogs or our back yard or anything like that,” said Robert Carrick, 36. “Our major concern at this point is whether she needs rabies treatment or not. For a 5-year-old, that can be painful, traumatic and there are potential side-effects.”

Rimrock in Forster Canyon, the 5-year-old tract of ranch homes where the Carricks live, backs up to broad open spaces. Orange County’s Prima Descheca landfill, which attracts coyotes, is just over a ridge and less than half a mile away, animal control officials say.

“We have coyote sightings all over town, but Forster Canyon is the real problem area,” said Kersey, who spent several hours Wednesday handing out leaflets on coyote control.