text: Police captured coyote who led them on a chase through downtown New York City on Saturday. Cops began following the wild animal after it was spotted scurrying through Battery Park City at 6am, The New York Post reported. Officers trailed it on foot and in patrol cars as it ran across roads and dipped between cars. For two hours it evaded capture, with one witness describing hows cops were chasing it 'like a suspect'. They then managed to corner it at Merchants River House on South End Avenue and shot it with a tranquilizer dart, the Post reported. It was then put in a cage and taken away into the care of the ASPCA. It is not known whether it was the same coyote that was spotted in Manhattan's riverside park on Wednesday. At least four coyotes have been spotted around Manhattan so far this year, and one was seen clambering around on the roof of a Queens bar before disappearing, says Sarah Aucoin, the director of the city's Urban Park Rangers program. Three of the animals were captured in Manhattan and released in Bronx parks with established coyote populations, she said. Cops began following the wild animal after it was spotted scurrying through Battery Park City . For two hours it evaded capture, with one witness describing hows cops were chasing it 'like a suspect' Officers trailed it on foot and in patrol cars as it ran across roads and dipped between cars . Police chased after the fourth on Wednesday in Manhattan's Riverside Park, even using a helicopter before until the animal secreted itself in deep brush near Grant's Tomb. There's no firm count of coyotes or sightings in the nation's biggest city, but the population is probably at least in the teens, says wildlife biologist Chris Nagy, a co-founder of a study group called the Gotham Coyote Project and the research director at the Mianus River Gorge in Bedford, New York. With some coyotes ensconced and breeding in the Bronx, others are likely heading into Manhattan this spring to seek their own turf, said coyote project co-founder Mark Weckel, a conservation biologist at the American Museum of Natural History. Coyotes were once creatures of Midwestern plains and southwestern deserts. But they have dramatically expanded their range in the last two centuries, partly because of declines in their predators, such as wolves and cougars, experts say. Although coyotes have been hunted for sport and killed as threats to livestock, they're now found from coast to coast. There are an estimated 30,000 in New York state, where they were first noted in the 1930s, the state Department of Environmental Conservation says. The wild animal crossed roads and avoided cars as it ran freely on Saturday morning . A police car with its sirens on is seen trying to chase down the coyote. Everytime they got close, the animal ran away . Then they managed to corner it at Merchants River House on South End Avenue and shot it with a tranquilizer dart. It was then put in a cage and taken away into the care of the ASPCA (right)
target: Animal gave police a run-around in Battery Park City on Saturday .
  Officers trailed the canine in patrol cars and on foot through the streets .
  It evaded capture for two hours while dipping in and out of traffic .
  Cops eventually cornered the coyote and shot it with a tranquilizer dart .