Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Hal the Central Park Coyote

The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.

The result of the debate was no consensus either for delete or merge. --Sam Blanning^(talk) 14:19, 9 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Hal the Central Park Coyote

While it was in the local newspaper (local being the tri-state region), it won't be remembered in a year, let alone 10 years. Rory096 05:54, 1 April 2006 (UTC)

• Weak keep, though most likely no one will ever remember it, its notable enough in that its rare for a coyote to find its way into Central Park (only two recorded incidents). It has also been featured in the New York Times [1] --TBC^{??? ??? ???} 06:06, 1 April 2006 (UTC)
• Then merge into, say, Central Park. Daniel Case 06:18, 1 April 2006 (UTC)
• This was all over the news here in New York for a day. For a day. Delete - its a [...] coyote. --Jeffrey O. Gustafson - Shazaam! - <*> 07:28, 1 April 2006 (UTC)
• Delete or merge to Central Park. (And by "merge to Central Park", I mean there could be a sentence in the Central Park article which says, "Oh, yeah, and one day there was a coyote there.") I didn't hear about this, although perhaps I've not been watching "Fox Five" as religiously as I should, but this was clearly not really notable even for NYC. The best part is that the coyote "died mysteriously", like it's some kind of conspiracy theory. When, of course, the cause is clear: they let grad students mess with him. No mystery at all. w00t --Deville (Talk) 14:51, 1 April 2006 (UTC)
• Keep. There is a great deal of mystery surrounding Hal, how it got into NYC, the strange death, etc. Needs expansion to discuss the issues involved. -- JJay 15:26, 1 April 2006 (UTC)
• Delete or merge per Deville.--Adam ^(talk) 15:28, 1 April 2006 (UTC)
• Keep. Notable national news. Also has connection to notable phenomenon of wild animals increasingly being found in urban areas. Interestingstuffadder 15:29, 1 April 2006 (UTC)

Then let's create an article about that instead. Daniel Case 18:46, 1 April 2006 (UTC)

• Delete. This is more suited to a newspaper, not an encyclopedia. Brian G. Crawford 16:08, 1 April 2006 (UTC)
• Delete. Not notable. --Tone 17:20, 1 April 2006 (UTC) Merge to Central park, it is interesting to mention it there. --Tone 17:21, 1 April 2006 (UTC)
• FYI: I have merged Hal (coyote) into this article, expanding it. Choess 19:00, 1 April 2006 (UTC)
• Delete. Unless the cougar found in Philly two years back gets an article. •Jim62sch• 20:11, 1 April 2006 (UTC)
• Comment Sorry to say, this coyote is exactly as notable as the cheerleader who fell on her head, and she's survived AfD twice. Fan1967 20:33, 1 April 2006 (UTC)

• While I agree that Hal is probably one of the most famous coyotes in the US, he is hardly as noteworthy as Kristi Yamaoka. Hal never got a call from the President and died too young to be on the Today show. However, Hal's death in mysterious circumstances adds a whole new layer to the story. Like Jim Morrison his mystique can only grow with time. -- JJay 20:42, 1 April 2006 (UTC)

• They both had their Andy Warhol Minute, and will never be heard from again. The details of their AWM don't matter. Fan1967 20:54, 1 April 2006 (UTC)
• Andy Warhol's 15 minutes lasted almost 40 years. If he was still alive he might have wanted to paint both Hal and Ms. Yamaoka. Both have had a lasting impact on many people, particularly of the cheerleader persuasion. And unless you know what is going to happen on April 20th, you really shouldn't make reckless predictions about the future. -- JJay 21:04, 1 April 2006 (UTC)

• Keep: national media attention...although this is probably a 15 minutes of fame situation, such incidents seem notable when they attract this kind of attention...hal has likley become a piece of nyc and national lore. Quepasahombre 21:01, 1 April 2006 (UTC)
  • Comment. NYC and national lore? His fame is already fading fast. His capture made it onto the front page of Newsday; his death barely got a quarter of a page. --Rory096 00:31, 2 April 2006 (UTC)
    • Hal's NY Times Obituary [2]. Note that the NY Times is distributed throughout the US and overseas. -- JJay 00:42, 2 April 2006 (UTC)
      • Considering the font size of NYT, that's extremely small. --Rory096 00:46, 2 April 2006 (UTC)

• Maybe. Perhaps the BBC is bigger [3], or The Age (Australia) [4], The Australian [5], National Geographic [6], EiTB (Spain) [7], NewKerala (India) [8], Toronto Sun (Canada) [9], etc. I guess the news made it a bit beyond the tri-state area. -- JJay 01:01, 2 April 2006 (UTC)

• • • • • • Just because it's made the news doesn't mean it's going to be notable in a year. And were those actually in the newspapers, or just online? --Rory096 01:23, 2 April 2006 (UTC)
      • While you pose an interesting existential question, unless you are James Van Praagh we won't have the answer for another 12 months. My point in listing some of those links, was to show that instead of being a local New York news story as you claimed in your nom, it was actually an international story reported by news services in dozens of countries. Checking Newsbank I can confirm that the story was printed in newspapers in every major market in the US, and in the Canadian, UK, Australian, Turkish, and Mexican press. -- JJay 01:33, 2 April 2006 (UTC)
• Delete mammals typically found in wilderness areas (e.g., cougars, bears, wolves) straying into urban centres is so common as to be non-notable. Fishhead64 21:59, 1 April 2006 (UTC)

comment: you are right to an extent. ordinarily it is very non-notable when a wilderness mammal roams into an urban center. However, this coyote became a nationally (internationally?)-covered media event. It is this media event, as much as the coyote itself, that makes this a sufficiently notable topic to merit a wikipedia article. Interestingstuffadder 22:45, 1 April 2006 (UTC)

Point taken. But it is a one-day-wonder type media event. Fishhead64 01:01, 2 April 2006 (UTC)

I admit it is basically a one-day-wonder event. But one day wonder events are frequently notable...see any super bowl or major disaster. They just happem, they are not dynamic or ongoing. Since so many events that anyone would consider notable would fall into this one day event category, this seems like an exceedingly weak rationale for deleting an article about a topic that gained such widespread media attention. Interestingstuffadder 07:19, 2 April 2006 (UTC)

• Weak keep how long has it been since a coyote was in c. park? 132.241.246.111 01:24, 2 April 2006 (UTC)
• Merge with Central Park. Moriori 01:49, 2 April 2006 (UTC)
• Please Keep. I leave it to the wikipedia experts to debate this, and value your opinion on this subject. My purpose for writing this article was to secure a place, albeit a small place, for Hal in the democraticly managed historical registrar, and not just allowing it to fade like an old front page of the New York Post. User:Thomashartbenton 04:16, 2 April 2006 (UTC).
• Keep at least for now. Let it play out a bit. Bcarlson33 05:06, 2 April 2006 (UTC)
• Delete, ephemeral news story. MCB 07:19, 2 April 2006 (UTC)
• Keep...notable national news story and possible new piece of NYC lengend. Captaintruth 17:25, 2 April 2006 (UTC)
• Keep Nationol news Seano1 00:14, 3 April 2006 (UTC)
• Delete. This is not Wikinews. Stifle 23:02, 3 April 2006 (UTC)
• Delete. If someone wants to include a mention in Central Park, fine. But this is news and not encylopedic. Vegaswikian 21:31, 5 April 2006 (UTC)
• Delete or barring that Merge into Central Park Pegasus1138^{Talk | Contribs | Email} ---- 05:54, 9 April 2006 (UTC)

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.