2007
The Quiznos coyote
A coyote strolled through the open door of a Quiznos sandwich shop at 37 East Adams Street and perched next to a soft-drink cooler. Liza Lehrer, associate director of the Urban Wildlife Institute at Lincoln Park Zoo, calls this behavior “extremely unusual” for coyotes: “Most of them try to avoid us.” Their diet typically includes rats, rabbits, birds, and plants . A honey bacon club? Not as much. After an hour, a city animal control team showed up and the coyote was eventually released at a private sanctuary in Barrington Hills, which sounds like a luxury round for a coyote.
2008
The Roscoe Village Cougar
North Siders reported seeing a really big cat “rushing over a six-foot fence like nothing.” Police cornered the cat at the 3400 block of North Hoyne Avenue and killed it in a hail of bullets. “It attacked the officers,” said one captain. A neighbor reportedly heard a police officer exclaim, “I just killed a friggin’ cougar!” DNA testing showed the 124-pound cat was genetically similar to cougars in South Dakota’s Black Hills. “You have to keep moving until you find Puma ladies,” a Field Museum expert told The Sun-Times. Nick Cannon can understand that.
2019
Monty and Rose
Chicagoans fell in love with these plovers, who took up residence on Montrose Beach and were the first of their tiny species to nest in the city since 1948. After flying south every winter, they returned to the beach every spring until 2022 when Rose failed to show up and (cue sad music) Monty dropped dead. Bird watchers hope her son Imani finds a mate. But since there are only about 70 pairs of plovers in the entire Great Lakes region, Imani has a good chance of finding someone suitable for him.
2019
Chance the snapper
This alligator mysteriously appeared in the Humboldt Park Lagoon in 2019. Chicagoans watched the drama over repeated attempts to catch him – a trapper named “Alligator Bob” couldn’t catch him, so Frank Robb, an experienced alligator wrangler from Florida, was called in to complete the job. Chance, which got its name in a Block Club Chicago poll, was subsequently served smoked at Frontier by Brian Jupiter. No, no, he was transplanted to a zoological park in St. Augustine, Florida.
2023
Chonkosaurus
The snapping turtle gained international fame in May after naturalist Joey Santore spotted it resting its massive body — it was later estimated to weigh 40 pounds — on wooden poles and rusting chains in the North Arm of the Chicago River near Goose Island. “Look at the size of this damn thing! Oh dear God!” Santore gushed with his exaggerated Chicago accent in a video he posted to Twitter. “Look at that beast! Hey, how are you boy?” The turtle didn’t answer — maybe because it was was about a girl who was probably full of balls.
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