Meet the wiliest of all coyotes: Hit by a car at 75mph, embedded in the fender, and dragged for 600 miles - but Tricky SURVIVED

By Mail Foreign Service
Last updated at 4:30 PM on 26th October 2009

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.


Wily coyote: The animal's head can be seen as rescuers took apart the front fender to save it after it was struck by the car at 75mph


'We knew it was bad': Tevyn East, who was in the car when it hit the coyote, bends down to take a look at the fur poking through the fender

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.


Fur Pete's sake: What Mr East spotted as he bent down to inspect the damage to his car - the body of the coyote poking out through the radiator


Miracle escape: As the animal struggled, wildlife protection officials put a loop around its neck to prevent it from further injuring itself

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 front of the car is completely taken apart as the coyote begins to wriggle free


And voila! Tricky the toughest coyote ever rests in a cage after its ordeal - which it survived with just some scrapes to its paw

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.

'Now it's a local coyote,' Tevyn East said.

'This coyote is amazing. If you look at the front of our car, the grill broke and acted like a net to soften the impact. It's pretty insane ... somehow the conditions were just right for it to survive the trip. We're trying to tell the story to people, to family and friends back home, but people can't wrap their minds around it.'
'We named it Tricky for a reason,' Daniel East said.