Andrew repels a coyote attack.

But the coyote isn't alone.

As soon as I hit the initial coyote on the head

with the flashlight, that's when the other two, you know,

saw the aggression from me and started to attack.

It was overwhelming.

I figured that hitting the first one, it would have been done.

But it wasn't.

All it did was just make it worse.

NARRATOR: Andrew is now under attack

by three coyotes, a pack.

This is a species that has evolved this kind of pattern,

this behavioral pattern of increased hunting success

when you're in a pack.

If coyotes are in a pack, they have the ability

to bring down quite large prey, including

a herd animals, like white-tailed deer and even

humans.

But overall, given the number of humans

and given the number of coyotes, it's

still a very rare phenomenon.

Why would a group of coyotes attack

a human is a bit of a mystery.

At that point, it was just mayhem.

And mind that it's 3, 4 o'clock in the morning.

And the only thing I really see is

a general outline of the animal and just the shimmer

of the light of the ice.

Humans, we are not as well-equipped

as coyotes are at night.

They can sleep better.

They have ice shine, this reflective iridescent set

of cells in the back of the retina that serve to capture

light and then bounce that light back out, so that then

the optic nerve, ultimately, is picking

up on the light information.

So they see a lot better.

ANDREW DICKEHAGE: All I could think about

was I needed both hands.

I couldn't do anything with the flashlight.

Imagine, like, having three or four people just in your face.

So I dropped the flashlight.

And I just put my hands up.

At first, I wasn't even actually trying

to hurt them because I know that wildlife is territorial.

And you know, I'm just trying to get away from where it started.

And they're essentially just kicking up off of my waistline,

trying to get up and higher.

By far and away, the most vulnerable aspect

of any vertebrate is the neck and the head.

That's where the brain is.

That's where eyes.

That's where the very anatomy of a respiration is taking place.

So ultimately, in bringing down a prey species,

they want to go for that region of the body.

The only thing that I really could do

was keep myself from falling down and making sure

that they didn't get behind me.

After a while, it really started to hurt.

There were gashes on my arms.

They were essentially just opening up the wounds more.

One tactic that coyotes [inaudible]

to get lots of little bites.

And the prey starts bleeding out.

Really, all I could process at that moment

was keep one foot in the dirt and one foot on the pavement.

I don't want to lose any kind of advantage

that I had in the situation.

But when the adrenaline started to wear off,

I did start to get tired.

And the pain started to set in.

It was starting to get to the point

where I felt like I had no control of the situation

and that they were starting to get the upper hand.

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