This Coyote's Alcatraz Swim Was TWICE As Epic As Everyone Thought

The coyote that became a viral sensation for swimming to Alcatraz Island in January just got way more legendary.

Researchers tracking the animal discovered something jaw-dropping: the male coyote didn’t paddle across San Francisco Bay from the city like everyone assumed. He actually launched his epic journey from Angel Island - making the swim twice as long as originally believed.

When tourists spotted the determined coyote splashing through the frigid, choppy waters toward the infamous prison island in late January, it marked the first coyote sighting at Alcatraz since 1972. Scientists were stunned. The National Park Service initially figured he’d made an impressive but relatively short one-mile swim from San Francisco.

Then came the DNA bombshell.

The NPS analyzed the coyote’s scat samples at UC Davis. The results pointed unmistakably to Angel Island State Park - a two-mile journey through some of the roughest waters in the Bay Area.

“We are surprised by the coyote’s origin,” National Park Service wildlife ecologist Bill Merkle admitted in a statement. “Our working assumption was that the coyote made the swim from San Francisco because it is a significantly shorter distance.”

Merkle couldn’t hide his admiration. “We couldn’t help being impressed by his accomplishment in making it to Alcatraz. Coyotes are known to be resilient and adaptable, and he certainly demonstrated those qualities.”

Some locals had nicknamed him Floyd, after the getaway driver from the Bonnie and Clyde film. The nickname stuck as tourists captured viral footage of the furry escapee conquering the bay.

But here’s where it gets weird: the coyote completely vanished.

Despite camera traps and audio recording devices placed strategically around Alcatraz, the animal hasn’t been seen since that initial sighting. Officials had launched a relocation effort anyway - they worried he’d devastate the island’s native seabird population.

“We don’t know what happened to the coyote,” Merkle said. “But he proved himself an expert swimmer to get to Alcatraz, and I hope he made a successful swim back home to Angel Island.”

The discovery also revealed something unexpected about the Bay Area ecosystem: three completely separate and distinct coyote populations operate independently across the region. Coyotes now thrive throughout the US, even in San Francisco’s upscale neighborhoods and city parks.

The whole saga has reignited debate about Alcatraz itself. In April, the Trump administration requested $152 million in federal funding to rebuild the shuttered penitentiary as a maximum-security facility for America’s most dangerous convicts.