Overview
- The National Park Service disclosed Monday that DNA from scat tied the Alcatraz coyote to Angel Island, overturning the assumption it came from San Francisco.
- UC Davis’s Veterinary Genetics Laboratory confirmed the match and identified the animal as a male previously sampled from the Angel Island population.
- The result points to a roughly two-mile crossing through cold, fast bay currents, about twice the 1.25-mile route from the city’s waterfront.
- After January video and a Jan. 24 photo documented the visitor, park biologists searched for tracks, set trail cameras and audio recorders, and readied a humane relocation to protect nesting seabirds.
- Officials report no further detections and no remains on Alcatraz, a 22-acre island with no fresh water that serves as sensitive seabird habitat within Golden Gate National Recreation Area.