A teenage folk singer hailed as a rising star in Canada has been mauled to death by two coyotes while hiking alone in woods during a solo tour. The attack took place as Taylor Mitchell, 19, was walking on a trail in the Cape Breton Highlands National Park in Nova Scotia.

Other hikers heard her screams for help but were too late to save the Toronto-based singer-songwriter, who released her debut album in March and had just been nominated for Young Performer of the Year at next month’s Canadian Folk Music Awards.

Friends said that she loved wandering in the woods. Her MySpace page shows her standing alone on a wooded path with a suitcase and guitar.

She had just got her first car, and headed off on a three-week solo tour to promote her first album, For Your Consideration. Her MySpace page describes her as “a bohemian rodeo star who grew up reading e. e. cummings and listening to Led Zeppelin”.

Mitchell took a break to go hiking on Tuesday before a concert the next day in Sydney, Nova Scotia.

She was not far along the popular 6-mile Skyline Trail when she was attacked just before 3:15pm local time. Police who responded to an emergency call from other hikers shot one of the two coyotes, apparently wounding it, but both animals got away.

Paul Maynard of Emergency Health Services, said: “She was losing a considerable amount of blood from the wounds.” “Words can’t begin to express the sadness and tragedy of losing such a sweet, compassionate, vibrant, and phenomenally talented young woman,” Lisa Weitz, Mitchell’s manager, said.

“She just turned 19 two months ago, and was so excited about the future.” Coyotes, also known as Prairie Wolves, are found from Central America to the United States and Canada. Male coyotes in eastern Canada can weigh up to 60lbs.

Nova Scotia’s Natural Resources Department said it was the first fatal coyote attack on a human since the animals were first discovered in the province in the 1970s.

In 2003, a teenage girl was bitten on the arm by a coyote while walking on the same trail as Mitchell, but her parents frightened the animal away.

Residents have reported seeing packs of up to seven coyotes wandering in gardens and attacking pets.

Bob Bancroft, a retired wildlife biologist for the provincial government, said coyote attacks are rare because the animals are usually shy. Hikers who encounter a coyote are advised to wave their arms and start shouting to scare the animals.

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