A year ago this week, a wild marmot led authorities on a wild chase across Bernal Heights and into Noe Valley. And now we have another one, this time in Potrero Hill? This can't be coincidence, you guys.
According to Wildlife Emergency Services, a Moss Landing non-profit that cares for imperiled wildlife, this year's marmot has been hiding under a deck at a home near 25th and Rhode Island streets.
WES president Rebecca Dmytryk told SF Weekly that the burrowing mammal had been squatting there for a few weeks, before the home's owners contacted her organization in an effort to displace the little dude. (Anti-marmot-eviction Google Bus barf-out in three..two...one!)
Dmytryk and her colleagues are seeking the public's help to figure out how the creature got to San Francisco in the first place, as a marmot's native habitat is the Sierra Nevada region. Typically what happens, Dmytryk said, is that marmots (like so many animals) are drawn to cars by the taste and odor of anti-freeze, then end up stowing away when the driver's trip resumes.
(That, or they just want to go to the Exploratorium.)
Dmytryk asks that anyone who lives within a half-mile of the marmot's current home who has passed through a high elevation area like the Sierras in the past three weeks to email the group at [email protected] or to call (866) WILD-911, ext. 4.
In the meantime, Dmytryk says they're headed to Potrero Hill to trap the marmot and send him/her back where he/she came from (as soon as they figure out where that is). But will it be that easy? As the only news organization to have interviewed last year's marmot, we believe that when the marmot is ready to go, only then will he/she go.
"You can't just waltz into the city, as a marmot, and not generate some attention," the marmot told us last year. "It's a humane trap and when I'm ready to go home I'll make use of it. But for now I'm going to do some sightseeing. I hear there's some really good coffee here."
Previously: In Which We Interview Bernal's Wild Marmot
