A coyote was captured on Saturday morning in lower Manhattan, according to the New York police department. The news came just days after a coyote led 24th precinct police officers on a three-hour chase through Riverside Park.
Asked if the coyote captured on Saturday in Battery Park was the same animal, an NYPD spokeswoman told the Guardian: “They can’t say.”
Coyote sightings have been on the increase in the city. On 11 January, a coyote led the NYPD in a 90-minute pursuit through Riverside Park before being caught. Two weeks later, another was captured in Stuyvesant Town.
In March in Riverdale, in the Bronx, a coyote scared Steven Spielberg’s sister, Nancy. Three days later, a coyote was spotted on the roof of a bar in Long Island City.
“He was a big one,” Spielberg told the New York Post. “He hung out for a long time in the back yard. He was staring at my dog through the window.
“I don’t really feel safe letting my dog out at night. I feel really uneasy. I’m an animal lover. I love all sorts of animals, but this one felt like a predator, like he couldn’t be rehabilitated. He was out in the daytime watching us for a very long time.”
The most recent sighting was on Wednesday, when a coyote was spotted in Riverside Park near 87th street.
In an interview with the New York Times, Donna Shillington said she was walking her border collie, Jackson, when she saw a coyote followed by two patrol cars with other officers following on foot, tranquilizer guns drawn. Shillington added that the last time she saw such a police presence in the park was when a naked man was on the loose.
The three-hour chase ended without a capture and with the NYPD saying it would continue to patrol the area.
Coyote doing well due to the great work of officers at the @NYPD1Pct & @NYPDSpecialops. pic.twitter.com/PyE0vdWj2x
— NYPD NEWS (@NYPDnews) April 25, 2015
Coyotes were first seen in the New York area in the early 1990s, Mark Weckel, co-founder of the Gotham Coyote Project, said earlier this week.
“It’s not a surprise obviously that a Manhattan coyote causes a spectacle,” he said. “Bronx coyotes really go under the radar for most of the year.”
While coyotes in New York were mostly sighted from a distance, two have attacked unsuspecting residents of New Jersey.
In early April, John Zeug was attacked by a coyote while working in his garden.
“For a coyote to attack a person is a very rare incident, and usually explained by a health issue,” Lawrence Hajnas, press officer at the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, said in a statement.
The coyote had reportedly also attacked a dog owned by Zeug’s neighbor. It was later caught and euthanised after testing positive for rabies, according to the Record.
Two weeks later, Stephen Sinisi was bitten by a coyote in Norwood, New Jersey while walking his dog, according to the New York Daily News.
A coyote was later caught by the local police, who could not confirm if the captured animal had bitten Sinisi. It also tested positive for rabies.
