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Posted by kaycebasques 1/19/2026

San Francisco coyote swims to Alcatraz(www.sfgate.com)
220 points | 72 commentspage 2
bitwize 1/19/2026|
That roadrunner thought he'd be safe hiding out on the notorious prison island...
DonHopkins 1/19/2026|
Poor coyote's ACME Portable Hole opened up into the middle of the bay.
pseudony 1/19/2026||
Poor thing, talk about going in the wrong direction :)

Impressive though.

gethly 1/19/2026||
If a Coyote could do it, all those famous escapees must have had too.
randombits0 1/20/2026||
Super genius!
moomoo11 1/19/2026||
aw poor baby

I really like the coyotes here.

Only dumbass mfs who let their pets off leash (I live in Pac Heights, you're supposed to have a leash on your dog at Lafayette Park and yet every day I see morons letting their dogs off leash OUTSIDE THE DAMN DOG PARK AREA. FUCK OFF!!!!) or let their small children go without supervision where they're not supposed to are at risk.

The worst part is that the authorities will put down the coyote (for being a coyote) and I hate reading stories about coyote culling.

Life would be so much better if morons were fined and eventually displaced into oblivion for making dumbass decisions that could have been easily avoided if they were not so negligent.

But yeah its nice to live in a city with cool nature like that. We have parrots, raccoons (there's a little family of them living near my home), coyotes, owls, hawks. Love it!

technothrasher 1/19/2026||
I recently spent a few days photographing wildlife just north of SFO. Your coyotes are so small and adorable compared to the coywolves we have here in the Northeast. I was actually focusing on bobcats, but I got some great shots of coyotes too. https://imgur.com/a/V8yarK4
moomoo11 1/20/2026||
yes they're really cute :3

i do feel bad for the cats they sometimes eat, but unless they're strays house cats should not be let outside. otherwise, nature always wins.

technothrasher 1/20/2026||
Wild animals are going to do what they do. I certainly understand wildlife management programs, but I've never understood the vilification of animals like coyotes, at least in modern times.
csar 1/20/2026||
The Chili Peppers long ago settled the ethics of coyote culling, but your attitude is cavalier and thoughtless.

For those of us living in suburbs, young children running just a few steps ahead (e.g. from the house to the other end of the driveway) can be in significant danger from coyotes.

Your hyperbole and cursing are not a great match for this forum and you should reconsider them or leave.

moomoo11 1/22/2026||
Be a better parent then. Sounds like a skills issue on your end.
quesera 1/19/2026|
The article speculates that this coyote might attempt to establish a pack on Alcatraz, by calling until a mate makes the same 1.5 mile swim in treacherous cold water.

I wish everyone the best of luck here, but I can't shake the image of the lonely guy unwittingly calling young females in proestrus to their likely deaths. An appropriately gender-swapped Coyote Siren of Alcatraz.

Maybe female coyotes are smart enough to understand SF Bay tides and currents, or just to ignore the crazy loud guy. I sure hope so.

MomsAVoxell 1/19/2026||
It seems too good to be true, honestly. The idea that this is how nature works, that it is indeed so metal, and it is actually just we, puny humans, who find the swim so treacherous in the pursuit of lust and eventually love. I’d swim to Alcatraz for pussy, if it was the only pussy for hundreds of kilometers around. I suppose.

Alcatraz being the last place on Earth I would expect to see such savage beauty is of no consequence to the fact that it is we, humans, who make Alcatraz so treacherous. Mother Nature sees it as an opportunity to breed hella puppies.

jollyllama 1/19/2026||
On the other hand, he's certainly proved his physical fitness by completing the trip.
quesera 1/19/2026||
Well I don't mean to hope for his loneliness.

I guess I hope that not too many suitresses are lost to the passion before he finds his mate of elevated luck and/or constitution.

Any resulting pups are going to have to make some difficult decisions though.

(Actually, assuming he's alive and found, relocating him is probably the most humane option)

layman51 1/19/2026||
Right, I don’t know much about coyotes but it seems like Alcatraz Island is too small and too touristy for a coyote to breed there.
quesera 1/19/2026||
Most of the island is off-limits to tourists. It's administered by the National Park Service.

Coyotes are territorial and usually have fairly large ranges. Alcatraz is small, but probably big enough to keep a breeding coyote pair well-fed and mostly out of the way of humans.

But the younguns will need their own territory after a year or so, and needing to cross the Bay to Marin or SF City would be have very low rates of success!