A Toronto woman's close encounter with a wolf was captured on video

A Toronto woman is warning others to be careful when she was approached by a car while sitting on a park bench near Ontario Place last weekend.

The 37-second video, which was posted on TikTok on Sunday and has been viewed 140,000 times on that platform, shows the medium-sized coyote walking between two benches on the waterfront path south of Martin Goodman Trail. The feral dog then stops by a bench and looks out over Lake Ontario, sniffing around before running north toward West Lake Shore Boulevard.

The brief encounter with urban wildlife was captured by a Fort York resident.

Maria, who did not want to give her last name in an interview with CP24.com, said she was resting on a bench near Lake Ontario, south of Liberty Grand, last Saturday around 8:15 p.m. He thought a dog had approached him twice.

The woman, whose back was partially turned to the animal, soon realized that what she saw out of the corner of her eye was actually blue.

“I was a bit shocked. … I did not expect this,” Maria said, adding that she had never been close to a wolf before.

“He was very close to me, right at the end of the seat. If I bent down, I would pet him.'

Not knowing what to do, Maria said that her instinct was to be as calm and as calm as possible so as not to show any resistance to the wild animal. around people.

At that moment, on his cell phone, he slowly pressed the record button and filmed some restless activity before heading home a few moments later.

“Thank you for not coming any closer, Mr. Coyote. I was in crisis planning mode,” he captioned the footage.

Maria said that while seeing a wolf up close was “very beautiful and awe-inspiring”, it was a slightly “disturbing” experience.

“You never know because it's a wild animal,” he told CP24.com.

“Just keep your distance, don't interfere.”

The City of Toronto says that while coyotes don't usually pose a threat to people, they can pose a threat to pets.

The city says on its website that residents who come into close contact with a coyote should not run away, but instead “make eye contact and back away slowly.”