Alcatraz (USA). Currently, visitors can tour the cells and courtyard
Coyote managed to reach the famous Alcatraz island, in a surprising and unprecedented event in that area of San Francisco Bay.
Alcatraz prisoners once risked the dangerous waters of San Francisco Bay to escape the island’s high-security prison. Now a cunning coyote was filmed doing the opposite: managed to make the “impossible” crossing and swim there.
Videos posted on social media show the coyote swimming toward the south end of Alcatraz Island as the sun sets over the bay. The coyote then struggles to climb up to the island’s rocky shoreline, visibly shaking and exhausted.
The videos were captured on January 1st by people visiting the island, which is located more than 1.6 kilometers from the mainland.
“Coyotes can be seen frequently throughout our San Francisco and Marin park systems, but never before on Alcatraz. This was the first time that biologists in our park observed something like this,” he said. Julian Espinozaspokesperson for the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, told .
Coyotes were once confined to the prairies and deserts of central and western North America. But in the 19th century, humans facilitated their expansion by creating more open habitats through forestry, agricultural development, and hunting their competitors—wolves and cougars.
As humans occupied more and more territory, coyotes became regular city dwellers. Their flexible nature and diet help them thrive today in cities like San Francisco, where they prefer patches of wooded and shrubby habitat, as well as parks and golf courses.
They are intelligent and versatile animals, known for knowing how to swim.
Even so, Stanley Gehrtprofessor of wildlife ecology at Ohio State University, told , he was shocked by the images.
Gehrt usually only observes coyotes swimming a few hundred yards in relatively calm lake conditions, which have nothing to do with the waters surrounding Alcatraz. The island sits in the middle of a cold estuary with strong currents — one of the reasons Alcatraz was considered a good location for a prison.
“People have always had difficulty making this crossing by swimming”, he pointed out.
It is assumed that some prisoners drowned while trying to escape the island. Although nowadays humans swim across recreationally, they do so with the help of isothermal suits, training and guides.
“Impossible crossing”
In 1962, inmates John Anglin, Clarence Anglin e Frank Morris They escaped from prison through the central building and fled the island using a raft made of raincoats. .
Last year, the US president, Donald Trumpannounced that he had ordered, “to shelter the most merciless and violent criminals in America”.
