This sort of thing is a huge problem here in New Zealand. The only native mammal here is a bat, we have mostly birds which evolved for a really long time with only avian predators. So they’re hilariously poorly adapted for surviving standard predators (cats, rats, dogs etc) which first the Maori and subsequently Europeans brought. For example, many of them are flightless and tend to freeze when threatened - works well against eagles but is a terrible idea when threatened by a cat.
As a result, we have many animals, mostly birds, which are totally unique and also critically endangered. Many of them can only survive on offshore islands which have been comprehensively cleared of predators at vast effort and expense. The islands need to be relatively accessible since humans have to get to them to maintain them, but it turns out that once in a while a predator will swim quite vast distances for no apparent reason, and it only takes one to mess up years of painstaking work. Quite apart from killing a bunch of birds whose total remaining numbers might range from the tens to the hundreds of individuals.
Alcatraz isn't really that far from land, about a mile away. They have events where you can swim to and from it. The currents make it dangerous, but the distance is unremarkable.
Direct ecological management is unfortunately a bit of a game of using a bucket to fix a leaky ship. The equilibrium that established the ecosystem dynamics in the first place is disrupted. A new equilibrium might form over time, but we enforce the old one because that is what we documented when we first came to a place, even though it is no longer thermodynamically favorable.
Ironically, the ecology of an island itself came from events like a random animal swimming to it over the historical record and finding sufficient spare resources or an ecological niche they could satisfy sufficiently to reproduce. Distance from mainland and species diversity is very strongly correlated reflecting increasingly scarce odds of these "heroic journeys" at greater distances. Species themselves are capable of exhausting an islands resources and putting themselves into local extinction even with no human intervention (such as the case of the last of the mammoths on wrangel island).
A lot of work and money has gone in to preventing zebra mussels from spreading to new lakes in Minnesota. Think free sites for people to have their boats cleaned when they’re going from lake to lake, PR campaigns, etc.
My parent’s small pond, which has never seen a boat or any other real human activity, got them before the big lake it’s connected to did. Clearly there was some other way they could spread, presumably by bird.
Anyways, one by one every lake in the area no has zebra mussels. Even if they would only spread via human, it was clearly only a matter of time. As much as they suck (they’re sharp and attach themselves to basically anything in the lake) I’m not sure the expense has been worth simply delaying the inevitable.
It's really odd stuff, humans are obsessed with declaring one moment in time as the "right one" and then trying to keep it like that forever. Evolution? We need to document gods work! People driving their SUV to protests for "conservation", the irony is thick.
If you time things right, and don't get swept out to sea, it's the 54 degree water that is the real danger. I'm no medical person, but it sure seems like that the animal is suffering from hypothermia and fatigue. I'm sure it'll have happy hunting once it recovers.
I would be surprised if the Coyote would be quick to get back into the water after such a difficult swim. It would, I suspect, want to recover and find food. So I support the theory the Coyote is just hiding somewhere. The island is small but not that small that it couldn’t hide somewhere.
When they explained why it hadn't been found, the quote was "I suspect the coyote was swept away...", but then later in the article it seemed clear the 'swept away' was in reference to the SF->Alcatraz journey, given the prevailing currents reported by the boat captain.
But then later in the article they re-stated the idea that it had been swept away _off_ the island, which doesn't really make sense given the currents.
I didn't think anti-bot stuff could get more annoying but to sit there and hold a button for like 20 seconds straight with nothing else on the screen to look at is incredibly boring and annoying and I gave up and left the page 3/4 of the way through it.
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!
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.
This sort of thing is a huge problem here in New Zealand. The only native mammal here is a bat, we have mostly birds which evolved for a really long time with only avian predators. So they’re hilariously poorly adapted for surviving standard predators (cats, rats, dogs etc) which first the Maori and subsequently Europeans brought. For example, many of them are flightless and tend to freeze when threatened - works well against eagles but is a terrible idea when threatened by a cat.
As a result, we have many animals, mostly birds, which are totally unique and also critically endangered. Many of them can only survive on offshore islands which have been comprehensively cleared of predators at vast effort and expense. The islands need to be relatively accessible since humans have to get to them to maintain them, but it turns out that once in a while a predator will swim quite vast distances for no apparent reason, and it only takes one to mess up years of painstaking work. Quite apart from killing a bunch of birds whose total remaining numbers might range from the tens to the hundreds of individuals.
Alcatraz isn't really that far from land, about a mile away. They have events where you can swim to and from it. The currents make it dangerous, but the distance is unremarkable.
Direct ecological management is unfortunately a bit of a game of using a bucket to fix a leaky ship. The equilibrium that established the ecosystem dynamics in the first place is disrupted. A new equilibrium might form over time, but we enforce the old one because that is what we documented when we first came to a place, even though it is no longer thermodynamically favorable.
Ironically, the ecology of an island itself came from events like a random animal swimming to it over the historical record and finding sufficient spare resources or an ecological niche they could satisfy sufficiently to reproduce. Distance from mainland and species diversity is very strongly correlated reflecting increasingly scarce odds of these "heroic journeys" at greater distances. Species themselves are capable of exhausting an islands resources and putting themselves into local extinction even with no human intervention (such as the case of the last of the mammoths on wrangel island).
A lot of work and money has gone in to preventing zebra mussels from spreading to new lakes in Minnesota. Think free sites for people to have their boats cleaned when they’re going from lake to lake, PR campaigns, etc.
My parent’s small pond, which has never seen a boat or any other real human activity, got them before the big lake it’s connected to did. Clearly there was some other way they could spread, presumably by bird.
Anyways, one by one every lake in the area no has zebra mussels. Even if they would only spread via human, it was clearly only a matter of time. As much as they suck (they’re sharp and attach themselves to basically anything in the lake) I’m not sure the expense has been worth simply delaying the inevitable.
It's really odd stuff, humans are obsessed with declaring one moment in time as the "right one" and then trying to keep it like that forever. Evolution? We need to document gods work! People driving their SUV to protests for "conservation", the irony is thick.
I too am flightless and freeze while threatened
It's a 1.5mi swim.
I remember visiting Angel Island (a 0.5mi swim) and seeing the abundance of raccoons they have, and asked a ranger how they got there. They also swam.
Growing up on a lake I would regularly watch deer swim the quarter mile back and forth between the shore and a nearby island, with no problem.
If you time things right, and don't get swept out to sea, it's the 54 degree water that is the real danger. I'm no medical person, but it sure seems like that the animal is suffering from hypothermia and fatigue. I'm sure it'll have happy hunting once it recovers.
I would be surprised if the Coyote would be quick to get back into the water after such a difficult swim. It would, I suspect, want to recover and find food. So I support the theory the Coyote is just hiding somewhere. The island is small but not that small that it couldn’t hide somewhere.
Yeah, the article was pretty confusingly written.
When they explained why it hadn't been found, the quote was "I suspect the coyote was swept away...", but then later in the article it seemed clear the 'swept away' was in reference to the SF->Alcatraz journey, given the prevailing currents reported by the boat captain.
But then later in the article they re-stated the idea that it had been swept away _off_ the island, which doesn't really make sense given the currents.
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=br4-VsvRcII
I didn't think anti-bot stuff could get more annoying but to sit there and hold a button for like 20 seconds straight with nothing else on the screen to look at is incredibly boring and annoying and I gave up and left the page 3/4 of the way through it.
Poor thing, talk about going in the wrong direction :)
Impressive though.
I wonder if a turtle drowned halfway across.
That roadrunner thought he'd be safe hiding out on the notorious prison island...
Poor coyote's ACME Portable Hole opened up into the middle of the bay.
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!
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.
If a Coyote could do it, all those famous escapees must have had too.