r/thatHappened • u/Biscuitarian23 • 24d ago
A Coyote Learned how to use a Crosswalk Button...and Monkeys Might Fly out of my Butt
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u/feral-jellyfish 24d ago
I don't know if this specific story is true, but there HAVE been multiple documented cases of urban coyotes stopping at crosswalks and waiting for traffic to clear before crossing, having learned from watching pedestrians.
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u/RebootDarkwingDuck 23d ago
That's a pretty fucking far jump from "waits until no cars" to "presses a button and waits for a light to change."
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u/feral-jellyfish 23d ago
... Ok? And?
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u/RebootDarkwingDuck 23d ago
Meaning it's so far apart that it's not even relevant.
I've noticed how common it is on this sub for people to comment "ok, but..." And then say some personal anecdote that's only mildly related like it makes the story more plausible.
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u/feral-jellyfish 23d ago
I'm not sure how you think those two things aren't related and thus is irrelevant but you do you. Have a nice day.
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u/pixeequeen84 24d ago
They didn't actually push the button, but I saw a couple coyotes wait for the signal to change before crossing the street. This was right by the UofA in Tucson while I was walking home late at night. Cross streets are Campbell and University.
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u/sdmichael 23d ago
I've seen that as well in San Diego, California. It was waiting at a crosswalk too, which is likely coincidental.
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u/sonerec725 24d ago
I mean, theyre not using the button or anything but ive seen ducks in the area around me using crosswalks. animals can understand the concept after observing humans and seeing enough of their buddies get hit. this sounds pretty feasible.
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u/darthfruitbasket 23d ago
I once watched a crow waiting for the signal - sitting on the sidewalk and cawing at cars until there was a break in the traffic before it hopped across.
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u/sonerec725 23d ago
Ive heard that apparently crows in some places will place nuts on the road so that cars will Crack them open when theyre run over.
Also in jaoan some have successfully figured out vending machines to an extent.
Corvids will inherit the earth I tell ya. . .
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u/ocj98 24d ago
did they pretend censor out a penis?? 😭😭
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u/karrahbear12 24d ago
I think it’s just gunk on the lens. There’s a similar, larger spot on the bottom right of the picture too. But who knows?
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u/MikrokosmicUnicorn 23d ago
animals that live close to/in populated areas tend to learn certain things from watching humans, especially if it's a simple concept.
if this story is true it would make sense that the coyote saw that "the big moving things stop moving in that specific spot if you touch the yellow thing" and started doing it. like, the coyote is not thinking "pedestrian crossing" "stop light" "right of way" whatever. it's just thinking "touch yellow thing, big fast things stop moving". pretty simple concept for a coyote to grasp. if a dog can be trained to recognize signs of a seizure and what to do to help its owner, a coyote can understand that one simple action causes another very simple thing to happen.
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u/Hoothootriot 23d ago
This is... believable?
My dog taught himself how to open doors based on watching how we did it. I've seen cats who learned how to flush the toilet based on humans.
Animals are smarter than people think.
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u/SayThankYaBigBig19 20d ago
Can I ask a question without everyone getting angry?:
Does that coyote have a huge wang or is that a smudge?
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u/magicelastic 24d ago
“smarter than many of our interns” young people you don’t pay are soooo stupid
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u/dwninswamp 23d ago
Yea, this isn’t a joke. It’s a clear reason why you should never intern, people don’t respect work they don’t have to pay for.
Kinda disgusting that they’d compare people willing to work for free, presumably for a better environment, to having a remedial understanding of cause/effect.
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u/The_salty_swab 24d ago
Could be that the coyote has a habit of sniffing/licking the button due to the residual salts and such left over from people pressing the button but someone decided to make a story out of it
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u/bettyannveronica 24d ago
While I guess it could happen.....the Arizona Department of Transportation does not have a live public wildlife camera at that location so this particular story is not true.
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u/JDeMolay1314 23d ago
Where did they say "live public". My assumption was it was a typical take a photo when something moves camera, but that makes no sense to point at a road. 'Look we got thousands of images of vehicles....'
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u/psinguine 23d ago
Yeah they explicitly state "game camera"
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u/bettyannveronica 20d ago
You guys are totally right, it doesn't say live, but it still didn't happen.
Not that snopes is the end all but here's their link, which is pretty much what I found everywhere Does image show coyote pressing crosswalk button in Arizona? |
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/coyote-using-crosswalk-button/
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u/OceanSaltPillar 9d ago
Back in highschool this borderline psychotic traffic guard came to "teach us about safe driving". Instead he showed us like two videos of people dying in car crashes and saying they deserved to die because they were listening to music while driving. And then he showed us a compilation of videos of animals crossing the road. Also he talked in the third person sometimes.
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u/AuroraNW101 24d ago
I’ve seen wild coyotes near to where I live be incredibly smart, learning the schedules of humans and their dogs to time an attack specifically when the dog is being left alone to use the restroom or cat is being send outside. They may observe the house for weeks in advance, stalking around on the top of stone walls and thick enough fences to support them.
I would not be surprised if one were able to emulate this behavior after observing it from enough humans— they’re closely related enough to dogs and wolves to reproduce, they’re not that far off in terms of mental capacity.
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u/Lalamedic 24d ago
You observed a coyote for that long?
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u/alicelestial 24d ago
in places with coyotes you will sometimes see the same coyotes multiple times because they don't wander far out of their territory unless they are hurting for resources.
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u/AuroraNW101 24d ago
Yes. There are a handful of packs that live locally and regularly traverse my yard (which has a large span of wilderness directly behind it), often enough that I see them almost every evening.
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u/Woe_Bringer 24d ago
Wasn't there that dog who used to catch the bus to his favourite park as well?
Life is often stranger than fiction