Marmot in the city: New resident of North Vancouver's Lower Lonsdale a 'rock star rodent'
CTV
When Les Robertson was walking home from the gym in North Vancouver's Lower Lonsdale neighbourhood three weeks ago, he did a double take. Standing near a burrow it had dug in a vacant lot near East 1st Street and St. Georges Avenue was a yellow-bellied marmot.
When Les Robertson was walking home from the gym in North Vancouver's Lower Lonsdale neighbourhood three weeks ago, he did a double take. Standing near a burrow it had dug in a vacant lot near East 1st Street and St. Georges Avenue was a yellow-bellied marmot.
"I thought it was a groundhog at first,” said Robertson. “Then I figured out it’s a marmot.”
He pulled out his cellphone and shot video of the large rodent, and a friend posted it to social media. And that’s how the marmot became a neighbourhood sensation, attracting what Robertson describes as “wildlife paparazzi.”
“I guess because of its rarity, that’s what we figured out. So we named him. Turns out, he’s not the first marmot named Morty,” Robertson joked.
“Everyone seems to know about it, and is quite excited about it,” said Angela Negenman, the City of North Vancouver’s environmental co-ordinator.
“For me, it's been a great learning experience because it’s definitely not something I would typically deal with in the environment on the North Shore.”
Yellow-bellied marmots are known to live in the B.C. Interior. But it’s incredibly rare for one to turn up in Metro Vancouver, let alone in the middle of a busy commuter hub like Lower Lonsdale.
