Hal was a 35-pound, one year old coyote that wandered into New York City's Central Park in 2006. Police officers gave chase for two days before capturing him near 79th Street.

He was named after the Hallett Nature Sanctuary where park workers first confronted him. Hal escaped by jumping over the workers and running away to one more evening of freedom in the city.

On March 22, 2006, Hal was tranquilized and captured in Central Park by the NYPD. He was transported to a undisclosed location in Central Park where he was examined by a veterinarian and monitored as the tranquilizer dart wore off.

These are the photos taken of Hal as he awoke from sedation.

Hal later died on March 30 while in the custody of the state Dept. of Environmental Preservation. Hal stopped breathing as he was being tagged to be released into the wild, and resuscitation attempts failed. A necropsy by the DEC revealed that a combination of heartworms and internal bleeding from the ingestion of rodenticide (possibly from eating rats that were already poisoned), altogether with the stress of the capture and tagging proceure was the cause of the coyote's cardiac/respitory failure.

All gallery content property of New York City Dept. of Parks and Recreation, used with permission.