HOLLYWOOD, FLA. (WSVN) - A paddleboarder had a wild encounter when she spotted a coyote at a South Florida park.
Michelle Llovet saw the coyote coming out of nearby bushes at Dr. Von D. Mizell-Eula Johnson State Park in Hollywood, Tuesday.
Llovet said she was grateful she was in her truck at the time and not walking around.
“It is a park that a lot of us are walking, running and, you know, out there in the outdoors, so [I’m] kind of concerned,” she said.
Llovet had just finished a day of paddleboarding when she spotted what she thought was a dog.
She stopped her truck and when she got a better look, she noticed it was no domestic pup.
“Kind of threw me back a little bit, because it was not something I had ever seen in South Florida the past 40 years that I’ve lived here,” she said.
Llovet snapped some pictures to document what she had found.
“Just to make sure I could show it to a park manager on the way out, then sent him a little message later saying, ‘There’s a coyote loose in the park,'” she said.
This is not the only recent sighting of coyotes in South Florida.
Just a week ago, someone spotted a coyote behind their Margate home.
In Tamarac, a coyote killed a small dog.
Llovet said she knows they’re around, but the encounter was still unexpected.
When asked if she will keep visiting the park, Llovet said, “Yeah, I’ll definitely go back, but I’ll go back a lot more guarded now.”
Park officials told 7News that this was one of two coyote sightings at the park.
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