A Coyote Leads a Crowd on a Central Park Marathon

NY Times ^ | March 23, 2006 | JAMES BARRON

[neverdem]

A coyote's romp in Central Park ended yesterday with a tranquilizer dart and a nap, but only after a messy breakfast (hold the feathers), a dip in a chilly pond and a sprint past a skating rink-turned-movie set.

There was also a final chase that had all the elements of a Road Runner cartoon, with the added spectacle of television news helicopters hovering overhead, trailing the coyote and the out-of-breath posse of police officers, park officials and reporters trailing it.

The coyote's pursuers joked that it even tried to turn itself in. It was hunting for a place to sleep it off after being hit by a single tranquilizer dart, and that place was a Fire Department dispatching station next to the Central Park station house overlooking the 79th Street transverse.

The coyote — named Hal by his captors, who said he was about a year old — woke up in a cage on the bed of a pickup truck carrying him out of the park. The city's parks commissioner, Adrian Benepe, wasted no time in declaring that Central Park's 843 acres were once again a coyote-free zone.

This was a couple of hours after Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg had delivered some one-liners at Hal's expense. "Are New Yorkers in danger?" the mayor asked at a breakfast at the New York Public Library. "This is New York, and I would suggest that the coyote may have more problems than the rest of us."

Where Hal came from remained a mystery. Mr. Benepe said that he had probably been driven out of Westchester County. Older coyotes do that to young males at this time of the year, wildlife specialists said.

[neverdem]

Robert Stolarik for The New York Times
Hal the coyote lay in a cage Wednesday, sedated by a tranquilizer dart after he led the police and other pursuers on a roundabout chase through Central Park.

Robert Stolarik for The New York Times
The dart was fired by a police officer who was part of a posse chasing Hal in Central Park. Hal was the the first coyote known to have been on the loose in the park since Otis the coyote gave officials a run for their money in 1999.

Daniel Avila/New York City Parks Department
Hal the Coyote, awake and alert after recovering from a tranquilizer dart.

[dervish]

Does the adage about mice apply to coyotes?

[neverdem]

What's the adage?

[Dallas59]

Saw two running across 170 in Southlake TX tonight. Both were well fed. Lots of rabbits, mice, rats, cats, and dogs to dine on around here.

[Fire_on_High]

Very handsome, smart lookin fella. Shame they're such troublemakers.

[djf]

Heard long ago that coyotes were near the top of canine intelligence.

Don't know how true that is. Wonder if you could ever get one to be partially domesticated by leaving him meals? We have alot of feral cats in my neck of the woods....

[dervish]

There is never just one.