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Inmates at Alcatraz once gambled with the treacherous waters of San Francisco Bay to break free from the island’s maximum-security facility. Currently, an astute coyote has been documented achieving the reverse: making a swim to Alcatraz Island for the very first time.
Recordings uploaded to various social media platforms showcase the coyote (Canis latrans) stroking toward the southern limit of Alcatraz Island as twilight descends over the bay. Subsequently, the coyote wrestles to shore onto the island’s rugged edge, noticeably shaking and appearing exhausted.
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“There is justification for the perceived difficulty in successfully completing that particular swim,” Gehrt commented to Live Science.
The recordings were made by an anonymous individual touring the island on Jan. 11. They then communicated the material to Aidan Moore, a guest relations representative working for Alcatraz City Cruises, who informed park authorities, as per reporting by San Francisco news platform SFGATE.
“Coyotes are commonly observed throughout our San Francisco and Marin park areas, though they’ve never been sighted previously on Alcatraz,” Julian Espinoza, a representative speaking for the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, shared with SFGATE. “This occasion signified the initial observation of an incident like this by our park biologists.”
Coyotes are resourceful and adaptable beings recognized for their swimming abilities. Gehrt indicated he’s seen coyotes swim across lakes in the Chicago area as a component of his enduring research initiative, called the Urban Coyote Research Project.
“On occasion, they show a preference for navigating across a lake as an alternative to circumventing its perimeter,” Gehrt stated.
Nevertheless, Gehrt typically witnesses coyotes traverse only a couple hundred yards across comparatively untroubled lake environments, which are unlike the waters bordering Alcatraz. This island is situated amidst a frigid bay marked by powerful flows — a prominent reason Alcatraz was deemed a beneficial site for its now-retired correctional facility.
The Alcatraz Island correctional facility shut down in 1963, and now it functions as a well-visited tourist destination.
It’s assumed that certain inmates met their demise via drowning during their attempts to flee the island, which is positioned more than a mile (1.6 kilometers) from the nearby mainland, and while humans partake in the swim recreationally in contemporary times, they engage in the activity benefiting from wetsuits, formalized training, and expert guidance.
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The means by which the coyote got to Alcatraz Island remains ambiguous. The recorded materials begin with the creature previously in the water without any clue as to its point of entry. However, Gehrt infers that the coyote must have endured a challenging journey. “Once it came out from the water, it unquestionably displayed characteristics suggesting it had been swimming for an extensive duration,” he suggested. “The species I’ve observed exiting the water subsequent to their swims don’t appear as troubled or as weary and sapped as that one looked; evidently, it undertook a notably considerable swim.”
Coyotes have previously been documented swimming to Angel Island, another island located within the bay; coyotes have taken up residence there since 2017, as KCRA 3 television station reported previously. Angel Island is situated nearer to a coastline compared to Alcatraz. Yet, Angel Island lies to the north of Alcatraz, thus, despite being nearer to the mainland north of the Golden Gate Bridge, a coyote on Angel Island would need to swim a greater distance to get to Alcatraz in comparison to a coyote situated on the San Francisco mainland to the south of the Golden Gate Bridge.
SFGATE indicated that the boat captain employed by Alcatraz City Cruises communicated to Moore the unusual presence of atypical currents within the bay, potentially due to runoff stemming from recent storm events. It’s plausible that the coyote could have been caught up during a shorter swim and eventually wound up in proximity to Alcatraz.
Gehrt stated that coyotes don’t always engage with the water willfully. At times, they use it as a means to evade encounters with humans and fellow coyotes, as they can be markedly territorial. However, Gehrt additionally surmised that this coyote may have been propelled by opportunity, notably including the potential for both sustenance sources and territory.
In earlier periods, coyotes were largely limited to the prairies and deserts spanning central and western North America. Yet, during the 1800s, humans aided their proliferation via the creation of increasingly expansive open landscapes fashioned through logging activities, agricultural development, and by preying upon competing species — wolves along with cougars.
In accordance with the increasing human occupation of land, coyotes gradually transitioned into regular city inhabitants. Their malleable constitution and dietary habits presently sustain them in metropolitan centers like San Francisco, where they tend to inhabit fragments of woody and scrubby locales, as well as community parks and golf facilities.
Christine Wilkinson, a conservation scientist specializing in Bay Area coyotes for the University of California, Santa Cruz, and the California Academy of Sciences, conveyed to SFGATE that the coyote featured in the video was seemingly attempting to assert claim over its personal territory.
Wilkinson hypothesizes that the coyote came from a pack populating Coit Tower, which is positioned on the mainland located to Alcatraz’s south and where there are limited patches of greenery catering to coyotes. Furthermore, coyotes seeking to branch out toward the south of Coit Tower would face the obstacle of Interstate 280 alongside the prospect of being hit by passing vehicles, thereby suggesting that resorting to the water may have presented a comparatively safer substitute.
Coyotes ordinarily scout for new areas to occupy during the autumn and the early part of winter, even though it’s not unusual for these behaviors to surface in January, Wilkinson stated. Additionally, the coyotes are presently entering their mating period, which generally extends from January through March.
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There have been no reported sightings in the period following the documented arrival of the swimming coyote onto Alcatraz. Wilkinson disclosed to SFGATE her impression that the animal appeared “rather frail” yet noted coyotes possess “remarkable resilience.” Wilkinson mentioned that the island contains ample nutritional sources adequate for a coyote, including eggs, hatchlings, rodents, along with mice.
Coyotes exist within modest family units, composed of an alpha male, an alpha female, and their direct family members. Lone coyotes are often younger members, ranging between roughly 6 months and 2 years, and of either sex, trying to connect with another group or develop their own territory, according to the Urban Coyote Research Project. Gehrt documented a coyote traversing distances greater than 150 miles (240 km) spanning the southern portion of Ohio as part of its natural dispersal tendencies, including an occasion when it navigated across the Ohio River.
“That observation signifies both the animal’s competence in overcoming a multitude of distinct obstacles and its facility in exploring and capitalizing on any available prospects,” Gehrt expressed.
Patrick PesterSocial Links NavigationTrending News Writer
Patrick Pester currently fulfills the duties of trending news writer at Live Science. His writings have surfaced on additional science-oriented websites, for example, BBC Science Focus and Scientific American. Patrick underwent training to become a journalist succeeding the early stage of his career spent in zoos coupled with wildlife conservation initiatives. He was honored with the Master’s Excellence Scholarship, enabling him to study at Cardiff University, and there he earned a master’s degree in international journalism. In addition to that, he maintains a further master’s degree pertaining to biodiversity, evolution, plus conservation in action secured from Middlesex University London. Beyond his responsibilities in creating news content, Patrick explores issues concerning the trafficking of human remains.
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