Coyote Rescued After Getting Its Head Stuck In A Jar

Coyote Rescued After Getting Its Head Stuck In A Jar

Thomas Nelson
December 15, 2020
Animals, Nature, News
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Litter is a problem of epidemic proportions. More than 75% of people surveyed say they have littered in the past 5 years, and each year, 9 billion tons of litter winds up in the ocean. Unfortunately, an unsuspecting coyote had a run in with mankind’s propensity for littering that almost took her life.

In 2019, a coyote in Bronte Provincial Park in Ontario, Canada was in trouble after locals spotted it with a plastic jar stuck on her head. The jar prevented her from being able to drink or eat. For any animal, this could be a quick death sentence.

“It raised a lot of commotion,” Chantal Theijn, a wildlife rehabilitator at Hobbitstee Wildlife Refuge, told MNN. “I was continuously getting massaged about it. Everybody wanted to point it out to me.”

The wildlife refuge was located 50 miles away from the coyote’s last known location, however, making a rescue difficult to coordinate. Complicating things even more – a snowstorm raged as they attempted to capture and save the coyote. Volunteers from the Oakville & Milton Humane Society knew they needed to act fast to save the coyote.

Eventually, volunteers managed to capture the coyote. Theijn was thrilled when she got the news, saying, “That was fantastic. They pretty much spent all day working on it. And with the help of some citizens, they managed to corner her and capture her.”

The roads were horrible at the time, but a volunteer with a truck managed to make the drive to the rehabilitation to drop the coyote off for professional care.

Later that night, the coyote was freed from the jar, effectively sparing her life from what would have been a horrible end.

It’s hard to know for sure how long the coyote’s head was stuck in the jar. Theijn said she was very thin and dehydrated. She describes the coyote’s care as slow and cautious.

“It’s one of those ones where you go really, really slow,” she said. “Like lots of fluids overnight and then a little bit of food in the morning. And then a little bit more food Tuesday night. And then a little bit more food this morning.”

Finally freed

At the time, the coyote had garnered quite a bit of public interest. To avoid unwanted attention and let her regain her footing in the wild, Theijn released the coyote at an undisclosed location in the park.

“Just because there’s been so much hype about this coyote, I don’t want 300 million people at the location where she’s going to be released,” Theijn said.. “She needs the time to reunite with her family and be out of the public eye.”

How the coyote got her head stuck in the jar is hard to surmise. It’s likely that there was leftover food in the jar which enticed her to go in for a taste, thus wedging the jar on her head. In any case, it underscores the importance of packing out what we pack in when we enjoy time in nature.