"When a brother and sister struck a coyote at 75mph they assumed they had killed the animal and drove on. They didn't realise this was the toughest creature ever to survive a hit-and-run. Eight hours, two fuel stops, and 600 miles later they found the wild animal embedded in their front fender - and very much alive.
And - as if to prove the point - the wily coyote later escaped from where it was being kept to recover. Daniel and Tevyn East were driving at night along Interstate 80 near the Nevada-Utah border when they noticed a pack of coyotes near the roadside on October 12. When one of the animals ran in front of the car, the impact sounded fatal so the siblings thought there no point in stopping.
'Right off the bat, we knew it was bad,' Daniel explained. 'We thought the story was over.'
After the incident around 1am, they continued their 600 mile drive to North San Juan - even stopping for fuel at least twice. But it was only when they finally reached their destination at 9am did they take time to examine what damage they may have sustained. At first it looked as though it was going to be quite gruesome.
'[Daniel] saw fur and the body inside the grill,' Tevyn East said. 'I was trying to keep some distance. Our assumption was it was part of the coyote - it didn't register it was the whole animal.'
Daniel East got a broom to try and pry the remains out of the bumper and got the shock of his life.
'It flinched,' Tevyn East said. 'It was a huge surprise - he got a little freaked out.'
The pair immediately phone Wildlife Rehabilitation and Release.
'We could see a little bit of blood, not a lot, and we couldn't see any wounds,' Tevyn East said. 'We didn't know if it was suffering and we should put it out of its misery, or if we could rescue it. But we realized we were going to have to take the front end of the car off to get to it.'
The coyote had been thoroughly embedded between the front fender and radiator of their Honda Fit car - and had amazingly survived the journey without any broken bones or internal injuries.
'It just had some scrapes on its paw,' Daniel East said.
The coyote - which was nicknamed Tricky - became active while trying to escape the car space so, fearing severe internal injuries, wildlife rescue worker Jan Crowell managed to snare a loop around its neck. Jan took the coyote to a kennel in her yard while figuring out where to release it. But three days later the coyote saw its chance - and escaped by wriggling beneath the bottom bar of the cage (Dailymail).'
This is the coolest story I have heard in a long time. How the hell did it survived getting hit by that car? Then stuck under there for 600 miles, and when it is finally released it is put in a cage, where it escapes back into the wild. This is the most James Bond Coyote I have ever heard of.....BADASS.
