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Police in Boston and Cambridge responded to a report of a dog stuck on the ice at Charles River, but instead found a coyote upon arrival on Wednesday (February 2), NBC Boston reports.
Boston firefighters and Massachusetts State Police arrived at the scene and discovered a coyote who appeared to be healthy and in no danger at the time.
"There is a coyote on the Charles River ice near Boston University right now," NBC Boston posted on its verified Instagram account. "Cambridge and Boston officials received a call for a dog on the ice. When Boston Fire and Massachusetts State Police arrived, they found this. They say it appears healthy."
Coyotes have become a growing concern in the Massachusetts area in recent years.
Last summer, two incidents involving coyotes were reported to have taken place on Cape Cod.
CBS Boston reported a small child, whose identity was not made public, was transported to Cape Cod Hospital and treated for "non-life-threatening" injuries after being bitten by a coyote on North Herring Cove Beach in Provincetown on August 12, the National Park Service confirmed.
The Park Service said rangers "destroyed the coyote responsible," and the animal was found dead on Thursday (August 12) and is scheduled to be tested for rabies.
Two weeks prior, a video shared to CBS Boston showed Marcy Sterlis, a New York City assistant principal visiting the Cape during a vacation, using a stick to keep a chasing coyote away from her on the beach in Provincetown.
“I was assuming it would react and leave, and it didn’t. And it totally caught me off guard, and it kept coming towards me,” Sterlis told CBS Boston.
The coyote continued to follow her as two fishermen, who shot the video, overheard Sterlis yelling and inched their boat up to the shore to give her a place to escape.
Sterlis managed to get onto the book and was taken to safety.
One year prior, a coyote in Provincetown killed a dog and bit a beachgoer, according to CBS Boston.
Mass.gov advises all individuals who are confronted by coyotes to "make yourself as big as possible, and as loud as possible to scare it."