A Southern California birder managed to photograph something generations of cartoon viewers were taught should never happen.
Alexander deBarros was conducting a bird survey at the Chatsworth Nature Preserve on Aug. 29 when he spotted a coyote running through the area with something in its mouth, according to KTLA.
DeBarros quickly took a few photos so he could get a better look. The coyote was carrying a greater roadrunner.
After more than 75 years of failed schemes, malfunctioning ACME products and strategically placed anvils, a real coyote had apparently figured it out.
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“I took just a couple of quick pictures just to confirm, is that actually a roadrunner in its mouth?” deBarros told KTLA. Looking at the photos answered the question.
The coyote ran over a hill and disappeared.
DeBarros has been studying birds since childhood and leads bird walks in the San Fernando Valley, so spotting wildlife around Los Angeles was hardly new territory for him.
A coyote running off with one of the most famous birds in cartoon history was another matter.
Perfect Timing
The encounter happened one day after Coyote vs. Acme opened in theaters on Aug. 28.
That alone would have made deBarros’ photo look like an unusually elaborate movie promotion.
He didn’t know about the timing when he sent the picture to his father.
His father did.
Runs In The Family
Brian Mainolfi is an animator whose first Hollywood job was working with Chuck Jones — the legendary animator and director behind Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner.
Mainolfi immediately recognized what his son had accidentally captured.
“It is kismet,” he told KTLA, recalling that he laughed when the photo arrived and told deBarros that Coyote vs. Acme had opened that same weekend.
DeBarros hadn’t realized it.
Mainolfi later went searching for another verified photograph of a coyote with a greater roadrunner and told KTLA he couldn’t find one. KTLA did not establish that his son’s image was the first ever taken, so the photograph may not rewrite the wildlife record books.
It did, however, give Wile E. Coyote something he has been waiting a very long time to see.