Coyote swam 2 miles to Alcatraz Island, going farther than scientists expected

A lone coyote stunned biologists and others when earlier this year it paddled its way to the remote Alcatraz Island, a former federal prison in the San Francisco Bay surrounded by swift, choppy waters notorious for thwarting prisoners’ escapes. At the time, biologists guessed the coyote swam from San Francisco, which is a little over 1 mile (1.6km) from the fortress. But it turns out the male coyote actually made an even longer swim from nearby Angel Island, 2 miles (3.2km) away. “Our working assumption was that the coyote made the swim from San Francisco because it is a significantly shorter distance. We couldn’t help being impressed by his accomplishment in making it to Alcatraz,” Bill Merkle, a National Park Service wildlife ecologist, said in a news release Monday titled: Alcatraz Coyote Wasn’t a City Boy After All. “Coyotes are known to be resilient and adaptable, and he certainly demonstrated those qualities,” he said. Camilla Fox, founder and executive director of non-profit Project Coyote, said the coyote likely departed its home base in search of a mate or new territory to defend. She said coyotes, like wolves, do swim, although it’s incredibly rare for humans to spot one doing so. “We have never, ever heard such a story of a coyote making such a long journey in a pretty challenging ocean current,” she said. Video from early January shows the coyote paddling in the chilly San Francisco Bay and then struggling to get on to the rocky island. …