Guy Spots A Roadrunner Outsmarting A Coyote In Real Life

"I had instant flashbacks to watching Saturday morning cartoons as a kid" 😂

Turns out, that classic cartoon was onto something.

You might say, from the start, this real-life matchup between a (possibly wily) coyote and a swift-footed roadrunner could only go one way.

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The other day, biologist Michael Bogan was out for a stroll in Tucson, Arizona, when a strangely familiar sight caught his eye — one that harkened back to his childhood.

There, just off in the distance, a coyote was engaged in a low-speed chase with an actual roadrunner.

"It was pretty hilarious to see it firsthand," Bogan told The Dodo. "I just couldn’t believe it — I had instant flashbacks to watching Saturday morning cartoons as a kid."

As you'll see, the coyote never really had a chance of coming out on top:

As per tradition, the roadrunner outsmarted the coyote — flitting over a bush the coyote couldn't easily overcome. Like in the cartoon, this bird, too, had tricks up her sleeve:

"The surprising part to most folks, because the cartoon never let this on, is that roadrunners actually can fly!" Bogan said. "So the coyote would have to be a lot sneakier to get the roadrunner when it was otherwise distracted. Any time the roadrunner has some advance notice, it’ll just make a short escape flight to get away. That’s what it did here."

Perhaps if the coyote had some TNT on hand, things may have ended differently. But probably not.