Overview
- The National Park Service, which released DNA results Monday, said a scat sample matched Angel Island’s coyote population and identified the visitor as a male.
- The finding overturns early guesses that it came from San Francisco, a roughly 1.25-mile crossing, by pointing to a near 2-mile route from Angel Island through colder, faster water.
- Park biologists set cameras and audio recorders after the Jan. 24 sighting, yet months of checks found no new detections, no carcass, and no sign the coyote remains on the island.
- Officials had readied humane trapping and relocation because Alcatraz is a small, 22-acre seabird nesting haven with no fresh water and little cover.
- Wildlife specialists say coyotes can swim but such long open-water trips are rare, which helps explain why none had been recorded on Alcatraz under Park Service management since 1972.