A woman adopted what she thought was a cute stray puppy, but it turned out to be a coyote.
Marian Vázquez Alarcón was heartbroken when she first spotted the tiny pup on the streets.
She decided to take it into her home and raise it as a pet.
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Alarm bells first rang when she noticed its insatiable appetite for meat.
It loved tearing chicken drumsticks apart with its teeth.
And at night it would make strange howling noises at its new home in Coatzacoalcos, Mexico.
It was only when it rapidly gained size that Marian realised “it was a beautiful coyote.”
Marian said: “Although he was raised among dogs, he never ceased to be wild.”
She realised she could no longer keep it at her home, so she contacted the Federal Attorney for Environmental Protection.
Officials collected the coyote and released it into an ecotourism space called the Bosque de los Murmullos (Forest of Whispers).
Marian explained: “The coyote is no longer with me because he was always wild.
“He grew so much that he simply couldn’t fit into a home anymore.
“You see, he’s a wild animal and tends to destroy many things.”
The coyote is a New World member of the dog family that’s smaller and more lightly built than the wolf.
It’s primarily nocturnal and hunts animals, sometimes attaining a running speed of 40 mph.
Johnny commented: “He’s quite adorable for a coyote.”
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