Hal, the Central Park Coyote, Dies

[magellan]

By MICHAEL VIRTANEN, Associated Press Writer Fri Mar 31, 10:09 PM ET

ALBANY, N.Y. - Hal, the coyote who paid a visit to New York City and was captured as he loped around Central Park, died as he was being tagged for release in the wild, a state official said Friday.

The coyote stopped breathing Thursday night during the routine tagging procedure and biologists could not revive him, said Gabrielle DeMarco, spokeswoman for the state Department of Environmental Conservation.

Pathologists were trying to determine whether the stress of his capture or captivity or something else contributed to the death of the year-old, 35-pound coyote.

(more, if you can stand it...)

:cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry:

[northofdenali]

1. He was healthy before they ran him down,

caged him, medicated him then tried to "tag" him.

They killed him. Period. :cry::cry::cry:

Why am I so pissed off at everything tonight?

[dusty64]

2. Relocating animals

is very hard on them. I usually don't agree w/ what is done to wildlife, but at least they did their best to try and keep him alive. Here in upstate they would just shoot them all, thats the solution for every animal "problem".

[Danmel]

3. If I lived in Central Park

And I was tranquilized and taken to live in Putnam County, I'd probably keel over too. No offense to Putnam County residents, but do they really expect a cool city coyote like Hal to live in the boondocks??????

[leftyladyfrommo]

4. Poor Little Guy

I read where there are a lot of coyotes in the DC area - even inside the loop. And they are keeping the Goose population under control. They eat the eggs. So there might be more of these little wiley guys in Central park.

[NYC]

8. Coyotes eat rodents.

I don't think he could have survived long in Central Park because of the rat poision. Eating poisoned rats probably would have killed him. It's a shame.

[roseBudd]

5. Marine mammals suffer from catecholiamine cardiomyopathy from

the stress of being caught in tuna nets. While this is related to the unique biology of marine mammals massive releases of norepinephrine triggered by the sympathetic nervous system "Flight or fight" system are deleterious to myocytes.

[SlavesandBulldozers]

10. that's what i was thinking too. definitely myocytes.

:D

[apple_ridge]

6. Gee, what a tragedy.

[Rainscents]

7. Poor baby.

:cry:

[Mz Pip]

9. How did a coyote

end up in Central Park? Seems kind of far away from his natural habitat.

Mz Pip
:dem:

[Hekate]

11. Funny thing about that. Coyotes have migrated East via human highways...

...which have cut across natural geographic barriers like mountains, deserts, and rivers. We have unwittingly extended their range quite a bit.

Coyotes are marvellously adaptable, and can live quite well at the interface between suburbs and the wild. They will hunt their usual fare, but will also pick off garbage cans and the occasional pet left out at night.

Coyotes are rightly classed among the Tricksters of mythology.

I'm sure the Central Park Coyote has provoked a lot of speculation about how he got to New York City and whether he brought anyone else with him. I don't think a city really would be congenial for a pack of coyotes, although rock doves and hawks think skyscrapers are just another kind of canyon for them to nest in.

I'm sorry he died just as people were trying to help him. Anything could have gone wrong -- my sister's dog died as it was being neutered, from a reaction to the anesthetic. No one knew why.

Hekate