Is it a seal? Or a sea lion?
That’s what Bill Miller, a state parks scientist, first thought when he recorded an animal swimming in the Bay over the weekend.
What Miller spotted was actually a coyote dog-paddling toward Tiburon before turning around and going back onto Angel Island.
Miller’s video was posted on Angel Island State Park’s Instagram account, but it’s not the only one he has captured. The scientist has taken more pictures of coyotes on the island in the past.
There’s a coyote population that’s been growing since 2017 on the island, where it’s believed a coyote arrived for the first time on record. Miller said that while the whole situation is unusual, it’s also exciting.
“We had one coyote show up on the island and it was seen by a staff member, nobody believed him… and then sure enough that was corroborated,” Miller said. “Now we’re at the point 8 years later where we think there may be as many as 15 coyotes on the island, all descended from one individual.”
The coyote population is the focus of a 5-year study by Miller and other scientists from state parks, along with UC Davis.
The researchers want to learn more about the coyotes’ lives on the island, how often they’re swimming on and off, as well as what kind of impact they’re having on the local wildlife.