Lucky coyote

[snopes]

http://www.snopes.com/photos/animals/luckycoyote.asp

[Don Enrico]

We discussed this here - and the commentor from the Daily Mail website obviously went through with his or her plan to "send this one to Snopes"...

Don Enrico

[Dr. Winston O'Boogie]

Seems plausable, but....

If you found a wild animal in your car, especially one with sharp teeth, would you be removing it from the car yourself, or would you be calling animal control? The pictures sure look like they were getting the animal out themselves. The one where the coyote is looking up next to the radiator is cute (but dangerous!).

[geminilee]

How is it dangerous? He certainly is not going to be able to move or attack from there.

And I don't see anything to suggest who was removing it from the car. Actually, I do in fact. In the fourth picture down, the coyote has a catch pole around his neck. Since most people do not have catch poles, I am going to say that is very likely animal control.

[Banrion]

Does not seem the least bit plausible to me for several reasons. 1) A car will not be able to go 600 miles with no airflow over the radiator. It will overheat. 2) The car radiator gets VERY hot even when not blocked, the coyote would be severely burned. 3) At 75 MPH the bumper will break on impact, at 25 it may just dent and pop back out, but not at 75.

I think the most likely explanation is that the coyote crawled in to stay warm and got stuck, like so many cats, squirrels, rats etc. do.

Caution: FOAF story

One of my co-workers received those photos several days ago from one of her friends who is the animal control officer who removed the coyote from the car.

[purpleiguana]

See, if I hit a largish animal like a coyote, even if I figured it died instantly, When I next stopped for fuel, I would definitely inspect for damage. Now, that coyote isn't "embedded" so much as it rolled up behind the front bumper and got trapped, so a quick glance wouldn't show any evident damage, I guess, but it's still pretty improbable.

[Mama Duck]

Originally Posted by purpleiguana

See, if I hit a largish animal like a coyote, even if I figured it died instantly, When I next stopped for fuel, I would definitely inspect for damage. Now, that coyote isn't "embedded" so much as it rolled up behind the front bumper and got trapped, so a quick glance wouldn't show any evident damage, I guess, but it's still pretty improbable.

According to the research done in the other thread about this, it happened as reported.

[purpleiguana]

Did I say it didn't?

I just said that "embedded," given the pictures attached to the OP, does not accurately describe what happened with the coyote. "Embedded," to me, would mean that the bumper and/or grille would be smooshed in, and the coyote would be stuck in the smooshed-in part.

I also said that I would have inspected for damage when I filled up (with the suggestion that I might have spotted the coyote much sooner) but that, given the pictures, a quick glance would indicate no damage and nothing else amiss.




ETA: Okay, it's my use of the word improbable which, my fault, probably needed more words wrapped around it. I was saying that the whole occurrence was unlikely, not unrealistic and therefore false. Clearly, this is one of those one in a million (possibly even billion) things.

[crescent]

The comments on the other (not recently active) thread remind me of a story my dad tells.

Once, long ago, my Dad was driving through Wyoming - he worked for the phone company maintaining phone systems in small towns.

Anyway, he hit a deer. It wasn't dead, but was badly injured, and the humane thing to do was to put the poor thing down. But, Dad didn't have a gun with him. He grew up hunting, and had guns at home, he and my uncle even used to bring rifles to school and check them in at the office in the morning, so they could go hunting right after school. That kind of 1950's lifestyle.

Now he wants to put the poor deer out of it's misery, and needs a gun. So, he drives to the first ranch house he sees, turns in the driveway (at about 6:00 in the morning), rings the doorbell,and asks "Can I borrow a gun?"

Apparently, the rancher decided that it was not wise to lend guns to complete strangers from Colorado, or perhaps the rancher just liked venison. The rancher took care of the deer himself.

Road kills stories always remind of Dad's story.

Which doesn't have much of a point to it.

And, really, has nothing to do with the OP.