FORT MYERS, Fla. \u2014 William Humes walked outside the Luminary Hotel for a cup of coffee. Instead, he found a coyote two stories above the ground. <\/p>\n
WATCH: Coyote escapes Fort Myers hotel ledge: <\/p>\n
‘We were in amazement:’ Crowd gathers to watch coyote stuck on Fort Myers hotel ledge<\/p>\n
\u201cWe turned and we looked, “Humes said. “And we were in amazement, as a matter of fact.\u201d<\/p>\n
So was Fort Myers Police Lieutenant Dominic Zammit.<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean, we\u2019ve had bears in trees and stuff like that,\u201d Zammit said. \u201cBut never a coyote on the side of a building.\u201d<\/p>\n
At first glance, the animal looked like a large dog. Brown fur. Fluffy tail. But it was no household pet on the small strip of concrete. Somehow, a coyote walked onto the second-floor ledge of the hotel parking lot. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
WFTX<\/p>\n
A coyote stood on the ledge of a Fort Myers hotel for hours as officers tried to capture the animal. Police said the animal eventually escaped.<\/p>\n
Fort Myers Police taped off the building’s Bay Street entrance at Bay Street as officers tried wrangle the animal. Police showed up after someone saw the coyote on side of the building, Zammit said. <\/p>\n
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) also responded to the hotel with a biologist, Zammit said. At least one FWC officer was at the scene with a kennel and catch pole.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
WFTX<\/p>\n
An FWC officer walks towards the Luminary Hotel. <\/p>\n
As morning turned into afternoon, the crowd grew. Downtown officer workers, tourists, and reporters gawked at the frightened animal as it stood almost frozen.<\/p>\n
After a multi-hour standoff, the animal got tired of the attention – and the hot sun. It hopped over the railing and ran back into the garage, prompting excited cheers from the crowd. <\/p>\n
Zammit said the coyote escaped out of the hotel and was last seen headed towards McGregor Boulevard.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey [officers] were unable to capture it, it was super fast,\u201d Zammit said, chuckling.<\/p>\n
Within minutes, the crowd disappeared. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe just had an extra activity going on today,” Humes said. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
WFTX<\/p>\n
William Humes, left, watches the coyote as it stands on the ledge of a hotel.<\/p>\n
Christina Anaya teaches biology at Florida Gulf Coast University. Anaya told FOX 4 it\u2019s not uncommon for foxes and coyotes to live in urban and suburban areas. Trash cans, dumpsters, and even small pets provide ample opportunity for food, Anaya said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHumans tend to carry around a lot of trash with them,\u201d Anaya said. \u201cSo we make food readily available. So for those that do move into urban areas, there isn\u2019t really a reason to leave, because they got everything they need.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anaya said coyotes generally do a good job at staying hidden. It\u2019s possible the coyote in Fort Myers went to the hotel garage for shelter, Anaya said, and was startled onto the ledge by cars.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FORT MYERS, Fla. \u2014 William Humes walked outside the Luminary Hotel for a cup of coffee. Instead, he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61618,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210,36737,4489,15748,9149,19112,3737,264,4747,2761,356],"class_list":["post-61617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news","tag-coyote","tag-downtown-fort-myers-florida","tag-florida-fish-and-wildlife-conservation-commission","tag-florida-gulf-coast-university","tag-fort-myers-fire-department","tag-fort-myers-police","tag-fox-4","tag-fwc","tag-hunter-walterman","tag-lee-county"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61617","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61617"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61617\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}