ALCATRAZ ISLAND — The National Park Service prepared to capture and relocate a lone male coyote that paddled to Alcatraz Island in early January 2026, citing the island's role as a seabird nesting habitat. DNA analysis later showed the animal swam about 2 miles from Angel Island, not the shorter route from San Francisco that biologists had initially assumed.

Video footage from early January captured the coyote paddling through San Francisco Bay and struggling to climb onto Alcatraz Island. A visitor sighted the animal and photographed it on January 24, 2026.

Biologists found fresh coyote tracks and scat on the island and sent the samples to the University of California, Davis, for DNA analysis. The results matched the population of coyotes that has established itself on Angel Island, indicating the animal had crossed roughly 3.2 kilometers of open water. Biologists had initially estimated the coyote swam about 1 mile from San Francisco, the shorter crossing to Alcatraz.

"Our working assumption was that the coyote made the swim from San Francisco because it is a significantly shorter distance. We couldn't help being impressed by his accomplishment in making it to Alcatraz." National Park Service wildlife ecologist Bill Merkle said in a news release.

The coyote has not been seen again on Alcatraz Island, and there is no evidence it remains there. No coyotes are known to have previously swum from Angel Island to Alcatraz, a crossing of approximately 3.2 kilometers of open water in San Francisco Bay.

Camilla Fox, executive director of Project Coyote, asked visitors to Angel Island and other open spaces to avoid disturbing coyote families and their dens during pup season. Coyotes have established a population on Angel Island, from which the Alcatraz animal originated according to the DNA results.