California Wildlife Center Rescue Coordinator Jonsie Ross spent three days tracking down a young female coyote with its head stuck in a drainage tube before she was able to rescue it on July 2.
The coyote was seen in the Winding Way/Escondido Falls neighborhood, according to local resident Lori Gray, who saw the animal while riding her horse.
“I thought it was an anteater, it was the strangest thing, I only saw it out of the corner of my eye,” she said in an email to The
Malibu
Times. “It spooked my horse as well. I don’t think she was able to see, eat or drink with that pipe on her head.”
Gray later alerted her neighbor Tony Barton, who called the the California Wildlife Rescue.
“Jonsie of CWR was absolutely relentless in her pursuit to help this young animal,” Barton wrote to the Times. “She is really an asset to this community with her passion, love and most importantly knowledge of our wild animal neighbors.”
The coyote is thought to be about one year old, and only weighed eight pounds at the time of rescue due to malnourishment. The coyote is currently resting and recovering comfortably at the center.