Coyote caught on video paddling to Pasque Island

Tour guide thought it was a different animal at first glance.

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A screen grab from Eamonn Solway's video.

Eamonn Solway was hosting a sightseeing tour in the waters near the Elizabeth Islands and Martha’s Vineyard when he spotted a coyote paddling against the heavy current that rips through Robinson’s Hole.

He captured a video of the coyote in the midst of its travels and posted it to the Islanders Talk Facebook page, where it’s rapidly garnering views, comments, and discussion.

“That was certainly a first for me,” Solway laughed during a conversation with The Times. “I think I just happened to be in the right place at the right time.”

Through his charter boat company, Island Girl Excursions, Solway provides tours, sunset cruises, and other getaways, but this particular sight was far from anticipated.

As Solway was crossing through Robinson’s Hole, he spotted an animal swimming in the water, so he drove closer to get a better look. “I thought it was a deer at first, then we came up close to it so we could get some video, and soon realized what it actually was. We actually watched it get on the shore of Pasque and go on its way — it was pretty cool,” Solway said.

Although the current is strong in that area of water, Solway said, the coyote looked comfortable and confident as it paddled toward its heading.

According to Solway, the coyote appeared to have been swimming from the western end of Naushon over to the far eastern end of Pasque.

Solway used his nautical chart to measure the shortest transit point between Naushon and Pasque, and he said it’s still about a 600-foot swim. “But I think it swam further than that, especially given the very strong current moving through Robinson’s Hole,” Solway said.

Based on how comfortable the coyote looked in the water, and the most recent sighting on-Island near Goodale’s pit, Solway said he thinks it’s possible the animals could swim to the Island.

“I’m not entirely sure, but to me it seems like it’s just a matter of how many are going to make it here, and will they ever have a breeding population? I don’t know,” Solway said.

Solway has lived on the Island for around 20 years, and although he has never seen a coyote on Martha’s Vineyard, he sees them frequently while giving boat tours of Naushon Island. 

“I’ve seen them a number of times walking along the shoreline on Naushon. That’s fairly common — guys fishing over there would also see them quite often,” Solway said.

The tiny Island of Pasque is known to have a large deer population, so Solway guessed the coyote was swimming there to hunt.

“Somebody commented that it was probably a young male that was shunned away from the pack, and it was going to find new territory, but who really knows?” Solway said.

The tour boat hung around until the coyote made it to Pasque Island, where Solway said it shook off its coat and began exploring.

“It was me and a couple from Louisiana — we were looking for highland cattle on the Elizabeth Islands, and we saw a number of those, but the coyote was certainly a surprise for all of us,” Solway said.

Island naturalist and wildlife expert Gus Ben David told The Times it’s rather common for coyotes to swim between the Elizabeth Islands, Nantucket, and the Vineyard. In recent years, five dead coyotes have washed up on the northern shores of Martha’s Vineyard — Ben David said those animals could have been trying to swim to the Vineyard, or to another surrounding Island, when they were caught in the current and drowned.

According to Ben David, there are two live coyotes known to exist in two different territories on the Vineyard. 

Although they are a fair distance away from each other on-Island, Ben David said, it wouldn’t be out of the ordinary for a lone coyote to stray from its territory, especially if it’s looking for a mate. “Coyotes can have a very wide range when they wander, especially if it’s a male looking for a female,” he said.

Ben David said no one is aware of the sex of either of the coyotes on the Island, but if coyote pairs are able to successfully breed, and a viable population begins to proliferate here, it could spell disaster for local farms.

“Biologically, we don’t want a viable breeding population here, because it would really disrupt things. For people that are free-ranging animals like chickens and sheep, it would be a nightmare,” Ben David said.

He referenced Naushon, which used to see sheep grazing freely in open pastures from one end of the small Island to the other. Now, the coyote population there makes it impossible to leave livestock unattended and unprotected. “Every night, their small flocks of sheep now have to be penned in. They cannot leave them out at night,” Ben David said.

Just like in wolf society, Ben David explained, sometimes an individual coyote will be born with a physical defect or psychological defect, and that animal will sometimes head off to seek out new territory after being ostracized by the pack. 

Ben David said the Eastern coyotes that inhabit the Cape and Islands are much larger than their Western counterparts, and once they become established in a territory, are difficult to eradicate.

“These coyotes do have wolf DNA in them going way back, and the average coyote size here compared with one you might see out in Montana is unbelievable,” Ben David said. “The heaviest one taken on Naushon was I think 57 pounds — that’s a big animal.”