Baby Coyote Meets Cactus, Gets Hundreds of Spines, Lives to Tell the Tale

Imagine you're a four-week-old coyote pup, just three pounds of fluff and curiosity. You're exploring the world, perhaps a bit too enthusiastically, when suddenly, you find yourself in a cholla cactus. Not just near it, in it. Hundreds of barbed spikes. On your face, paws, belly. Every. Where.

That's precisely what happened to one tiny coyote in Surprise, Arizona. A homeowner spotted the prickly predicament and, instead of just marveling at nature's painful comedy, called the Southwest Wildlife Conservation Center. Because apparently, that's where we are now: tiny wild animals needing emergency spa treatments.

A Prickly Predicament

A volunteer quickly arrived, likely wondering if this was part of the job description. At the clinic in Scottsdale, veterinary technician Berk Martineau documented the ordeal. He explained it was "baby season," which sounds adorable until you realize it means a constant stream of orphaned, often injured, tiny creatures arriving at their doorstep. The goal, always, is to fix them up and send them back to the wild.

Martineau’s video showed the pup looking, well, like a pincushion. Cholla cactus spines are notoriously "super gnarly" and barbed, meaning they go in easy and come out… not at all. The poor little guy was given sedatives, because if you're going to have hundreds of tiny daggers pulled from your face, you might as well be napping through it.

This wasn't just a casual spine or two. This was an "extreme case," Martineau told the Washington Post. Some spines had even punctured clean through the pup's ear. Let that satisfying image sink in.

The Long Road to Less Prickly

Martineau and a colleague spent a painstaking two and a half hours, metal clamps in hand, carefully plucking out each individual spine. Which, if you think about it, is both impressive and slightly terrifying for all involved.

Beyond the immediate cactus crisis, this pup had already endured a "pretty rough start to life." Being an orphan means a tough go even without the added challenge of becoming one with a cholla. Young animals, bless their hearts, are still figuring out the whole "survival" thing. Sometimes that involves wandering into things that sting.

Once spine-free, the team tucked the pup into a warmed incubator. He got fluids to rehydrate, likely dreaming of a world without spiky plants, and then enjoyed his first proper meal. The next step: growing up. He’ll need to become a fully-fledged coyote before he’s ready to face the wild, and hopefully, make better life choices.

Martineau's hope? That this was the hardest thing the pup will ever have to deal with at the center. Here's to smooth sailing, and perhaps a healthy fear of all things spiky, from here on out.