A coyote was caught on an Upper West Side basketball court last night, the New York Post reports. Police tranquilized the animal and plan to release her back into the wild.

Police were notified of the coyote's presence around 9:30 p.m. and chased her back and forth between 72nd and 79th streets along Riverside Drive, eventually penning her in at a basketball court on 76th street.

Coyotes have spread across the wilderness of Westchester County and made several incursions into the city in recent years. Just this past June one was spotted in the Bronx. Elsewhere, downtown Chicago is already home to some 2,000 coyotes.

How long will they wait before descending into Manhattan to terrorize the small yapping dogs of those affluent neighborhoods around Central Park, and what can we do to make that happen more quickly?

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