NewsOffbeat

Actions

Oh Hai, coyote wandering around on icy Lake Michigan

Posted at 6:19 PM, Feb 04, 2014
and last updated 2014-02-04 18:28:42-05

Richmonders love their coyotes andwhite wolf—err husky dog—sightings.

Department of Game and Inland Fisheries has said that coyotes aren’t native to Virginia, but they’ve been here a while and they make regular appearances in neighborhoods.

But no one in Richmond has yet captured this kind of video: a pair of coyotes was caught on film taking a stroll across a frozen Lake Michigan in Chicago Tuesday.

Can you imagine seeing this on the James River downtown?

This part of Lake Michigan is near Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood.

The coyote was out on the frozen lake off 59th Street — at least a half mile from shore — and continued heading away from land.

A Chicago Police Department helicopter tried steering the coyote toward the shore, reports affiliates WGN, but eventually the pilot had to leave to refuel.

The fire department responded with equipment and an ambulance close to the scene, just in case.

There’s no update on whether the coyote made it to shore.

These aren’t the first coyotes to tempt fate. In December 2010, emergency crewshad to intervene with nature and rescue a coyote that was trapped on a small piece of ice floating away from shore in Lake Michigan.