'It's pretty common': Mountain marmot hitches ride to Calgary-area home

Alpine rodent will be returned to Kananaskis Country

An Airdrie, Alta., man brought back more than memories from a trip to the mountains last week.

When Chris Ratzlaff's son told him there was "a creature" in the garage, he thought it might be a muskrat or some other common mammal, but it turned out to be a hoary marmot — a large rodent only found in the mountains.

"It wandered my neighbourhood for about a week," Ratzlaff told the CBC Radio's Calgary Eyeopener.

"I had neighbours who were posting sightings in the community Facebook group," he said. "They were posting sightings of it moving around the neighbourhood, and then Saturday morning, my wife came back into the house from the garage and said, 'There's a creature in our garage.'"

He hadn't expected the marmot to find its way back to the garage.

"For it to come back, my guess is that it was looking for its ride home," Ratzlaff said.

Hoary marmots are a common sight in Kananaskis Country west of Calgary, where Ratzlaff had been hiking when the rodent got into his car.

He called the Calgary Wildlife Rehabilitation Society, who sent someone to pick up the marmot.

The group will keep the marmot for a few more days to assess its health, and will then return it to Kananaskis.

A reminder to check your vehicle

This is far from the first time Calgary Wildlife Rehabilitation Society executive director Beki Hunt has heard of this happening.

"It's pretty common," she said. "Marmots are attracted to the minerals and the taste of anti-freeze that comes out of the cars."

The group has a marmot named Marmalade, who ended up in their care in 2021 after being found as a baby in a car wash.

Meet Marmalade the marmot:"Same thing: hitched a ride back to the city, and then when they went to wash their car when they returned, she was washed off," Hunt said.

"She had some brain trauma, so wouldn't be able to be successfully released back into the wild, so we've kept her as an education ambassador."

Hunt hopes Marmalade's story helps raise awareness about marmot hitchhiking.

"She goes into schools and teaches kids just about that: to remind their parents if they're going hiking to bang on the roof or the hood of their car, maybe honk the horn, open the hood to make sure there's nothing in there."

Alberta is home to two marmot species: the hoary marmot, found in alpine terrain, and the yellow-bellied marmot, a slightly smaller rodent found in more arid regions like Lethbridge and along the Milk River.

With files from CBC Radio's Calgary Eyeopener