Why a Daring Coyote May Have Swum Two Miles to Reach Alcatraz Island
In January 2026, visitors to Alcatraz Island were shocked to find a coyote swimming through the frigid, choppy waters to the island. Video recordings of the animal show it swimming to the rocky shore and struggling to get out of the water.
Once ashore, the coyote appeared exhausted and shaking, but eventually circled the island. After viewing the video, National Park Service (NPS) experts believed the coyote must have swum somewhere nearby.
“Our working hypothesis was that the coyote made the trip from San Francisco because the distance was significantly shorter,” Bill Merkle, an ecologist with the park’s Wildlife Service, said in a news release. “We couldn’t help but be impressed by his accomplishment upon arriving at Alcatraz.”
San Francisco is about a mile from Alcatraz, which makes for an awesome swim. However, after further research, park officials announced that the coyote may have swum from another island nearly two miles away.
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Coyote escapes from Angel Island
One of 14 coyotes that inhabit Angel Island, a likely relative of Floyd, the coyote from Alcatraz.
(Image courtesy of California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW))
After the coyote arrived, park officials searched the island for it. However, all they could find were new footprints and droppings. Authorities sent the feces to the Mammals and Ecology Unit at the University of California, Davis, Veterinary Genetics Laboratory, where it underwent DNA analysis.
The results revealed that the coyote was a male and was in fact not native to San Francisco. The coyote’s DNA matched that of a population living near Angel Island, a state park.
“Three distinct coyote populations could have been the origin of the Alcatraz, San Francisco, Southern Marin and Angel Island coyotes,” Ben Sacks of UC Davis said in the press release. “Our lab was able to take the DNA sample and match it to a coyote previously sampled from the Angel Island population.”
According to a social media post from the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, the coyote earned the nickname “Floyd” in homage to Floyd Hamilton, an Alcatraz prisoner who was forced to swim back to the island after an unsuccessful escape attempt.
Why did the Coyote come to Alcatraz?
Alcatraz Island was once home to a U.S. military fortress that was converted into a federal penitentiary in the 1930s, where the famous prisoner Al Capone was once held. However, in the 1960s, the prison was closed due to cost, according to the NPS. Today, it is part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area and visitors can take a ferry to explore the island.
Floyd probably wasn’t visiting the island as a tourist, so why would he decide to come to the island? Researchers still aren’t sure, but they have a few theories.
Angel Island coyotes likely first arrived in 2017 after a single pregnant female swam from Marin to the mainland, according to Brett Furnas, a quantitative ecologist and senior environmental science supervisor at the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. Further research indicates that 14 coyotes currently live on Angel Island and that Floyd’s DNA matches that of M24-8, a male from Angel Island.
In September 2025, a coyote was spotted swimming around Angel Island and then returning to shore, so the fact that Floyd went to Alcataz doesn’t surprise Furnas.
“My guess is that M24-8 (or Floyd, as he was nicknamed in the press) was trying to swim north but was swept away by the currents and was very lucky to struggle all the way to Alcatraz before being transported to the Golden Gate or wherever. Since we know that M24-8 is a ‘boy,’ it’s not surprising that he would try to disperse off Angel Island to find his own territory – and the only way to do that is to swim,” he said. Furnas said. Discover.
The island has no fresh water source except for collected rainwater, according to the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy, so it’s not exactly an ideal place to live. Although the site is a protected area for nesting seabirds, it could provide a food source.
Because of the nesting habitat, NPS officials wanted to quickly locate and relocate the coyote. Although they installed video and audio recording devices, after months of monitoring there was no sign of the coyote and the only remains found were seabird remains.
“During the time we believe the coyote was on the island, we found bird carcasses that showed signs of predation, so we believe the coyote was capable of preying on and consuming nesting seabirds such as Brandt’s cormorants,” said Joshua Winchell, chief of communications and special uses for the Golden Gate National Recreation Area park. Discover.
Where did the coyote go?
Since park officials were unable to find any remains or evidence that the coyote was still on the island, it is believed that the coyote may have left the island and swam elsewhere.
“We don’t know what happened to the coyote,” Merkle said in the news release. “But he proved to be an expert swimmer to get to Alcatraz, and I hope he managed to swim home to Angel Island.”
Furnas believes Floyd may have returned to the water and hopefully made it to land in San Francisco or Marin.
“Coyotes are known to be resilient and adaptable,” Merkle said in the release, “and he certainly demonstrated those qualities.”
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