By Xavier Tayo
When you think of New York City, nature doesn’t usually come to mind. Disasters are caused by humans, not weather. It feels like an earthquake when a building collapses. Floods are the result of water pipes breaking underground, and instead of lightening strikes, New York City has electrified manhole covers.
City kids are taught that rivers are to be crossed by bridges and not by swimming. Until recently, the only wild animals New Yorkers came into contact with were pigeons and rats. And then in March, a coyote took a stroll into Central Park.
Coyotes are a relative of the domestic dog. They travel alone and are known to howl at night. Hal the Coyote snuck into the city from rural areas upstate. He ran and swam and finally made it to Central Park’s many nooks and crannies.
After he was spotted by the police, Hal the Coyote was chased across the park for a couple of days. But after jumping an 8-foot-high fence Hal was hit by a tranquilizer dart, and he fell to sleep. Eight days later he died of rat poisoning.
The Parks Commissioner said, “You’d have to be a very adventurous coyote to make it to midtown.” Sadly, the adventure was too much for Hal: he died a few days after being caught. Maybe the city was just too wild for this wild animal.
