The call of a Tucson coyote is echoing around the globe, thanks to a viral video of the animal howling from on top of a car at a Ford dealership.
Patrick Irish Sr. had just started his 5 a.m. shift as a private security guard at the Tucson Auto Mall when he spotted the coyote perched on the roof of a brand new, all-electric Mustang at Holmes Tuttle Ford.
Irish often hears the animals calling to each other and even sees them occasionally running through the car lots near the Rillito River, but this was a first.
He said the scene almost seemed staged, with the coyote positioned directly under a street light and turned sideways to him in perfect profile.
鈥淚t looked like a Halloween decoration,鈥 Irish said.
A coyote howls from the roof of a car at the Tucson Auto Mall in a screen capture from a cell phone video shot by Patrick Irish Sr.
Irish shot his video of the car-lot coyote back on Oct. 22, but he didn鈥檛 share it on Facebook until Christmas Eve. He is not supposed to have his cell phone聽out while he鈥檚 on the job, but he couldn鈥檛 resist just this once.聽
People are also reading…
After a few seconds of filming, he walked toward the coyote and told it, 鈥溾楬ey, you gotta go,鈥欌 he said. 鈥淚t was a good-sized, healthy looking thing. I didn鈥檛 want the rest of the family showing up.鈥
The animal jumped down from the Mustang and took off 鈥渁s soon as we made eye contact,鈥 Irish said.
It鈥檚 hard to know what the coyote was howling about. It might just have been bragging, though probably not about the great deal it just got on a new car, said , long-time curator of mammalogy and ornithology for the .
鈥淚 think a lot of it is territorial, and by being up high on something, the message will carry farther, which is good for them,鈥 she said. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e big on territory.鈥
Coyotes make up to 鈥 from yips and barks to long, lonesome howls 鈥 and even the experts aren鈥檛 sure what all of them mean, Riplog-Peterson said. 鈥淪ome people call them song dogs because they have so many vocalizations.鈥
The coyotes at the Desert Museum exhibit similar behavior to this one filmed at the Auto Mall, climbing up on two tall rocks in their enclosure to 鈥渃heck out the territory and see who鈥檚 coming their way,鈥 she said.
When Riplog-Peterson showed the video to her fellow staff members, one of the veterinarians immediately referenced the famous 鈥淓verything the light touches is our kingdom鈥 scene from 鈥淭he Lion King.鈥
Coyotes have dramatically expanded their kingdom over the past two centuries. The opportunistic omnivore鈥檚 range now covers all of North America, and it has adapted to live off the spoils of human civilization 鈥 namely our garbage, the fruit from our trees and occasionally our pets.
鈥淭hey will seek out everything, because they can live off anything,鈥 Riplog-Peterson said. 鈥淭hey鈥檝e really become city slickers. They do just as good in urban areas as they do in rural areas.鈥
The six-second clip really took off after got Irish鈥檚 permission to post it on X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter.
Since then, the footage has been viewed more than 10 million times on X alone and and other media outlets.
Irish began to suspect something was up when he went to show the video to a coworker and she told him she had already seen it on TikTok.
鈥淏ut I didn鈥檛 realize it (went viral) until my boy told me,鈥 said the retired Air Force master sergeant, who has lived in Tucson for the past 25 years.
Now if you Google 鈥渃oyote howls on car,鈥 the video of the Auto Mall serenade is the first thing that pops up.
鈥淚t鈥檚 all over the place,鈥 Irish said.
Reporter Henry Brean filmed this coyote chorus at Crooked Tree Golf Course on Dec. 27, 2022.
