Wily coyote survives wild ride

A coyote struck by a fast-moving car near the Nevada-Utah border apparently got trapped by the vehicle's grill and rode for several hours all the way west to the foothills east of Sacramento. Daniel East and his sister, Tevyn, were travelling at about 75 mph along Interstate 80 when they saw some coyotes running nearby. One of the coyotes ran in front of the car.

"Right off the bat, we knew it was bad," Daniel East said. They said they kept driving because they thought they had killed the animal, so there was no point in stopping. They were on their way to start to new chapter in their lives, to be in a community of artists and farmers in North San Juan, just outside Nevada City.



After they arrived - eight to 10 hours later - they found the trapped animal and called Penn Valley-based Wildlife Rehabilitation and Release. Jan Crowell, a rehabilitation center volunteer, said she brought a catch pole, an animal carrier, gloves and blankets.

When she arrived, East and his sister were taking the screws out of the car's grill in an effort to get the animal out. Once the grill was pulled forward, the coyote poked its head out. "No broken bones, no internal injuries - nothing," Daniel East said, adding that the animal only had a few scrapes on one of his paws.



The coyote was taken to the rehabilitation facility. It remained there until Thursday, when it managed to push up the steel at the bottom of a kennel to free itself, Crowell said.

It hasn't been seen since.

With news video. There's a photo gallery here.