Students walking past the Alumni Memorial Union this morning were greeted with an unfamiliar sight: two Marquette University Police Department squad cars and a coyote.
MUPD officers surrounded a coyote that was spotted on campus this morning near the AMU. MUPD Lieutenant Joseph Erwin said the coyote was not an immediate threat to students.
“Officers monitored the animal’s activity and let it go about its business,” Erwin said. “It didn’t appear aggressive and it sort of made it out of the area on its own.”
Erwin said MUPD had other local departments on standby in case they needed assistance, including the Wisconsin Humane Society, but no intervention was needed.
Some students said they were surprised to see a coyote, but did not feel threatened.
“It was just frolicking playfully in the snow,” Kali Finch, a sophomore in the College of Health Sciences, said.
Izzy Ogden, a sophomore in the College of Arts & Sciences, said she saw the animal in Schroeder Hall’s parking lot at 8:30 a.m.
“The coyote was running around the parking lot, and then it ran under a bush,” Ogden said.
Ogden said it was difficult to tell if the animal was a dog or a coyote. She said the coyote ran out from under the bush with something small in its mouth that she thought was a small rabbit.
“It wasn’t threatening,” Ogden said. “Actually, it was really cute.”
While MUPD is not sure where the coyote came from, Erwin said it was a good measure to assure that the animal returned where it belonged.
“It kind of moseyed in and moseyed out on its own,” Erwin said. “We were just making sure that everybody was safe.”
MUPD could not confirm where the coyote went, but Erwin said it is no longer on campus.
