Firefighters free coyote from condo parkade
Taking up reluctant residence in a condo complex parkade might have mimicked a hapless Wile E Coyote.
But the presence of a coyote stranded in the underground car park of the Gateway Southcentre condos at 11811 Lake Fraser Dr. S.E. had the site’s management raising the alarm about the unwanted guest.
“It has been reported there is a coyote trapped in the residential parkade!!!” stated a notice on the community’s website dated last Friday.
“Please proceed with caution and do not approach the animal!!”
Warning signs were also posted around the complex.
A complaint from the 500-unit complex was received Saturday evening by the Calgary Fire Department, who are more accustomed to rescuing felines from rooftops.
But the firefighters quickly found their skittish quarry in the concrete confines of the parkade, said department spokeswoman Carol Henke.
“We did respond to a call of a coyote that was trapped somehow in the underground visitors’ part of the parkade,” she said. “It had gotten into a fenced-off area and was shaking and scared.”
The firefighters captured and removed the animal, though Henke said it’s unclear where it was released.
Members of the condo complex’s board or management didn’t return calls or refused comment.
By last summer, the number of coyote encounters in Calgary this year had nearly tripled the amount in 2016 and quadrupled the 2015 figure.
Last summer, pathways in the Panorama Hills and Hidden Valley areas were temporarily closed after a series of close human runins with the animals.
City officials say they’ve been working with coyote experts to devise new approaches to coexist with the animals.
Henke said last weekend’s coyote call was unusual for her department.
“We do go out to a wide variety of animal calls, though this one would be a rare one,” she said.
One wildlife rescue that stands out, she said, was following the discovery of a skunk trapped in a tin can several years ago.
“It was a very tentative approach but nobody got sprayed,” said Henke.