A marmot that stowed away in the engine compartment of a car and travelled thousands of kilometres from Colorado to Toronto earlier this year has been safely returned to its natural habitat.
In a news release, the Toronto Wildlife Centre (TWC) said a Toronto police officer was on a road trip with her friend and her dog in May when it all began.
As they left Aspen, Colorado, they began to hear “high-pitched chirping” coming from the car, but couldn’t find any signs of an animal.
So they continued driving and six days later returned home to Toronto.
“At home they did a closer examination from the underside of the car, and whiskers were seen poking out from the area of the chirping — so they sought help to extract the accidental traveller,” the Toronto Wildlife Centre said.
“When municipal animal controls in two cities and a nervous mechanic couldn’t help, they got in touch with TWC.”
The release said the wildlife centre’s rescue team got the car into a secure underground parking garage, had two people ready with nets and jacked up the car.
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The adult female marmot was safely netted, transferred into a carrier and brought to the Toronto Wildlife Centre’s hospital to be examined.
“TWC’s medical team examined the American rodent and determined she was in surprisingly good health, albeit a bit thin and dehydrated and extremely nervous and stressed,” the release said.
“In the care of the rehabilitation team, the marmot ate well but nervously hid when anyone entered the room; chirping high-pitched warning calls at them.”
The wildlife centre said yellow-bellied marmots are native to the western United States — not Toronto — and had to be returned back home.
The release said it was a “huge task” involving confirming the exact place where it got into the car, contacting wildlife officials in Colorado, U.S. border agents and airlines, booking a ticket, finding out which sedative to use because marmots are “very high stress animals,” and more.
The process took almost two months,. TWC staff finally crossed the border on July 15 and got the animal to the Detroit airport the following morning, the release said.
After flying to Denver, the marmot was examined and held to allow time for the sedative to wear off.
“And just this past Wednesday, we received news the yellow-bellied marmot had been successfully released back into the wild,” the release said.
“Because yellow-bellied marmots seem to stow away in cars often, she was released in great marmot habitat well away from parked cars.”