March 23, 2006

One of the delights of New York City parks is the occasional dramatic appearance of a genuine wild animal. For the past two days, the unexpected visitor to Central Park was a male coyote, who followed a path very similar to his predecessor, who dropped in on us in April 1999.

Spring is apparently the season when adventurous young males set forth in search of food, females, or affirming life experiences. Although we really don't know how coyotes reach Central Park, we suppose that they come down from Westchester, meander through Riverdale close to the shoreline of the Hudson, and either cross over on the old New York Central railroad bridge, or swim Spuyten Duyvil to Inwood Hill Park. From there they can proceed through Fort Tryon, Fort Washington and Riverside Parks to the Upper West Side. How they get from Riverside Drive to Central Park West is unknown. There were no sightings this year, but in the previous close encounter (1999), some people claimed to have seen the creature ambling to the park.

In each case, either the coyote was freed in the park by a practical joker, or it arrived under its own power. Is it a measure of the effectiveness of the Department of Homeland Security that an undomesticated beast (canis latrans, its Latin, scientific or Linnaean name, means “barking dog”) could penetrate practically to the heart of our great city undetected by the authorities? No. We believe these septennial visitors should be considered tourists, rather than potential threats.

Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe named the coyote Hal, a reference to the search centering at Hallett Nature Sanctuary and an oblique hommage to the film “2001.” The sanctuary itself was set aside as a preserve by Commissioner Robert Moses in 1934. After a long period of neglect leading to desuetude, the area was restored in the 1980s during Mayor Koch’s administration. The commissioner in 1986 named the sanctuary in honor of George Harvey Hallett Jr. (1895–1985), naturalist, bird watcher, and longtime executive secretary of Citizens Union. Hallett represented CU in Albany for generations, and persistently advocated proportional representation for local elections.

The 2006 Coyote, which sounds like a new automobile, was first spotted in the southern part of Central Park Tuesday morning. Its presence was called to the attention of A-Train (Mr. Benepe) who, following Rule 12-G, “Go to the Scene,” promptly left his Arsenal office and proceeded to the Nature Sanctuary, a four-acre wilderness located west and north of the Pond, across Central Park South from the former Plaza Hotel. The coyote eluded police efforts to capture him. One tranquilizing dart either grazed the beast’s butt or slid off his back, in any case failing to fell the feisty, furry forager. The sporadic pursuit was called off at 9:30 p.m., so both the officers and the animal could get their rest.

Wednesday morning, the chase resumed, with the coyote jumping into The Pond and swimming north, toward the Wollman Rink, which was in use by skaters. The animal, pursued by a pack of photographers and police officers, headed along the western border of the rink, bringing skaters en masse  to see the action. At some point, the coyote again disappeared from public view, but at about 10 a.m. he was spotted near 79th street and tranquilized by a dart to a fleshy portion of his leg.

Hal was then placed in a heated, hooded cage to recover from his ordeal, and later turned over an animal rehabilitator, who intended to release him upstate, close to his brother and sister coyotes.

The chase, including the flight pattern of the coyote, was remarkably similar to the path of the 1999 Coyote. He too took first to the sanctuary, then The Pond, and headed northward until his capture. He was named Lucky Pierre by the commissioner because he was fortunate to be alive and well, and had leaped into The Pond across from The Pierre hotel. After his recovery, he found a permanent home in the Queens Zoo, in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, which specializes in larger North American mammals. The zoo named him “Otis,” which sophisticated namesmiths felt to be a TedIOuS name, with no relevance to this coyote. He is unlikely to have passed the Otis Elevator factory in Yonkers in his hegira, Van Cortlandt Park being a much more likely route for his southward trek.

Van Cortlandt, and the adjacent Woodlawn Cemetery, have been the sites of coyote incursions over the years. On one occasion, a coyote was struck by a vehicle on the Major Deegan Expressway, after which an unknown gunman administered the coup de grace. The handsome beast was named Major, stuffed, and exhibited at the Arsenal for several years, where it was particularly admired by visiting children. Because the Arsenal was the original home (1869–1877) of the American Museum of Natural History, stuffed animals were no strangers there. Sometime after 2001, Major disappeared, a victim of regime change and decomposition.

We admire the vigor and tenacity of the noble creatures that traveled through hardship to find refuge in Central Park. Although they could not stay there, because they eat other animals when hungry and have been known to bite children, we are grateful that they were not injured during their Olmstedian odyssey. We estimate that the next appearance of a coyote in Central Park will occur in 2013. We all hope to be around to see it.



#287 3.23.06 904wds