Alcatraz Island, a small, rocky outcrop about 1.5km offshore from San Francisco, is surrounded by chilly waters and fierce currents. No prisoner is known to have successfully escaped from its infamous prison. And yet, some non-human animals have arrived at its shores.
Between the 1850s and 1950s, hardly any wildlife inhabited the Californian island due to human activity. But since the prison closed in the 1960s, around 5,000 nesting birds, including black-crowned night-herons, snowy egrets and pigeon guillemots, have returned.
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More surprisingly, in January 2026, an adventurous coyote turned up on Alcatraz. DNA analysis of his scat revealed he was not from San Francisco, but from further afield. Scientists think he must have swum around 3km from Angel Island, which is north of Alcatraz, to get there.
While this isn’t the first coyote sighting on Alcatraz Island, it is a rare occurrence: the last sighting was in 1972. The intrepid coyote spotted earlier this year is now believed to have left the island as there have been no recent sightings of it. This is good news for the resident birds, which would likely have become its prey.
The only other mammals on Alcatraz are the occasional sealion and seal, and deer mice – thought to have arrived alongside humans. Slender salamanders also call the island home and were probably introduced by us, too.
