LINCOLN — Police warned residents to avoid coyotes Thursday after an officer was forced to shoot one near McDonald’s earlier this week.

Coyotes and many other wild animals have lived on and near the paper mill property on Katahdin Avenue and in nearby woods for many years, police and Lincoln Paper and Tissue LLC paper mill officials said. The large mill parcel, adjoining wetlands and Lincoln’s rural character even within its West Broadway business strip have made them a common sight.

But within the last week at least three reports to police have indicated that the coyotes are coming onto people’s properties and aren’t shying away from people, Lincoln’s public safety director Dan Summers said.

“It looks like we have a bunch of coyotes running around. It’s the first time in my career that we have had so many complaints in residential and business areas,” Summers said Thursday. “Not only do we have problems with bears, we have them with coyotes.”

“We are hearing they are not afraid of human beings or scared,” Summers added.

Officer Anthony Redmond shot and killed a coyote near McDonald’s on Tuesday night. Several sightings also have been reported on Katahdin Avenue near the mill and on Evergreen Drive between Lee Road and Main Street, Summer said.

One Katahdin Avenue resident complained that a coyote or dog had eaten several of her chickens, Summers said. Lincoln Town Council Chairman Steve Clay said that he followed a coyote from Main Street near Whitney Energy onto Depot Street near the mill Monday night before grazing it slightly with his truck. Councilor Curt Ring was with him. They had just left a council meeting, Clay said.

“On Depot Street I saw what I thought was a dog at first,” Clay said. “Both of us said that’s not a dog, that’s a coyote. It ran in the middle of the road. The vehicle actually grazed him. It stunned him for sure.”

Bill Peterson, personnel director and spokesman at the paper mill, confirmed that the mill last week had hired an animal control officer recommended by the Maine Warden Service to address the coyote problem.

“We are not going to expose our employees to any form of attack or bite,” Peterson said. “We haven’t had anybody hurt but we are going to deal with it up front.”

No one knows why the coyotes are making an incursion so far into human territory. State biologists maintain that there are at least 12,000 in Maine, according to a Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife website page dedicated to the subject.

Coyotes are described as medium-sized animals in the canine family, with pointed muzzles and long, bushy tails. Their coats are usually a mixture of tan, black and gray, but can range from black to strawberry blond. The average adult coyote weighs 30 to 35 pounds, with males being heavier than females. Large males only rarely will exceed 45 pounds, according to the page.

They typically eat small animals, including snowshoe hare, mice, rats, woodchucks, beavers, squirrels, snakes, frogs, fish and animal carcasses. They mostly hunt at night. They avoid human contact and their attacks on humans are rare, according to the page.

“To date, there have been no documented coyote attacks on humans in Maine. There are documented cases in other states. Often the animals responsible had become accustomed to the presence of people, were fed, and-or were targeting dogs that accompanied people,” the site states.

A study of coyotes in southern California, the west’s most populated state, “found that from 1988 to 1997 there were 53 coyote attacks on humans resulting in 21 injuries,” the page states.

Summers warned residents to avoid feeding or having other contact with coyotes and to call 911 to report their presence.

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