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Back in the halcyon days of late spring 2016—when the Silver Lake 365 by Whole Foods Market had only just opened and we still thought we could be our best organic-kombucha-at-non-organic-prices selves—rumor that Sonic Youth songstress Kim Gordon had been bitten by a coyote in the parking lot of said Silver Lake 365 market set the internet aflutter. The news, which fell from the (seemingly official) @wholefoodssilverlake Instagram account like manna in the internet desert.
Fortunately for Kim Gordon (less so for the poor web writers who make their living off these very situations!), all our concerns turned out to be for naught. The Silver Lake Whole Foods Instagram account (now tragically deleted) was a fake: there was no coyote, and Kim Gordon herself even stepped in eventually to clarify:
no
— Kim Gordon (@KimletGordon) May 29, 2016
365 even chimed in, because brands are internet characters, too:
Sorry about the frustration Kim! We are working hard to get this fake account removed.
— 365byWholeFoods (@365byWholeFoods) May 30, 2016
But life imitates art*, and now an actual coyote has been spotted—and starkly photographed, like a still from a Michael Mann movie!—in the Silver Lake 365 parking lot:
(Click to enlarge)
Echo Park resident Pascal De Maria was heading home after "a late Monday night" when he spotted the coyote in the parking lot at approximately 12:27 a.m. Tuesday morning, according to De Maria. The 32-year-old film editor snapped a pic, as one does, and posted it the next morning to the eternally lit Los Feliz / Silverlake / Echo Park Facebook group.
"Lol I know it's not a dog," De Maria told LAist in a Facebook message. Despite the fact that he had been joking, the thread quickly went OFF, with more than 100 comments chiming in to either a) inform De Maria that the animal pictured was, in fact, a coyote and not a dog, or b) debate what kind of "dog" it was.
"It's a pug," one bespectacled member of the group posited. "It's a werewolf. Twilight style," another member commented. "Bump....I hope his owner sees this," a third person added.
Several others chimed in to speculate on whether or not this was, in fact, the coyote that had "bit" Kim Gordon.
According to National Park Service wildlife ecologist Justin Brown, the animal in question was none of the above. "It's definitely a coyote," Brown told LAist after taking a look at the photo. "More than likely, it's C-145, an adult male coyote that we collared in the Silver Lake area about two years ago," Brown continued.
Word is still out on whether or not Kim Gordon has visited the Silver Lake 365 by Whole Foods market. In other news, residents who would like to assist Brown with his coyote work and help the NPS better understand what L.A. coyotes are eating can join him on May 27 at their monthly Coyote Scat ID party at Debs Park.
*By "art" we obviously mean on-the-nose parody Instagram accounts.
