MANHATTAN — After a stroll through TriBeCa and a short stay on the Upper East Side, Manhattan's most famous four-legged tourist will soon be heading out of town to the country side.
The elusive TriBeCa coyote, who was captured by an army of NYPD officers Thursday, will be set free in the wild at an undisclosed location, according to New York Daily News.
The one-year-old coyote was said to be in good health and was given a rabies shot at Manhattan's Animal Care & Control on the Upper East Side, the paper reported.
The female coyote led police on a chase down the TriBeCa bike path before eventually being corralled at a parking garage on Watts Street on Thursday.
"I thought it was a dog," said Jacques Capsouto, who owns the Capsouto Freres restaurant near where the coyote was captured. "You wouldn't be able to tell the difference between a coyote and a dog, and I certainly couldn't."
The Parks Department will decide where and when to release the animal back into the wild, Animal Care spokesman Richard Gentles told the News.
Police believe the captured coyote is the same one spotted by commuters near the entrance to the Holland Tunnel before eluding capture on Wednesday evening.
Coyotes have been spotted in Manhattan five times in recent weeks.
Police caught a coyote in Washington Heights in January, and another one was found loitering around Columbia University in February.
Earlier this month, a coyote escaped from police who attempted to catch the animal in Chelsea.
The New York State Department of Conservation Web site says coyote sightings and incidents are rare because of their fear of people.
The first confirmed coyote sighting in New York City history was in the Bronx in 1948, according to The Daily Mail.
