Yellow-bellied marmot knows “the way to San Jose,” from Yosemite!
A female, yellow-bellied marmot was seen crawling out of a storm drain near Cottle and Whitegate avenues in San Jose’s Willow Glen neighborhood. This is all well and good, except that the yellow-bellied marmot is a LARGE (five to 10 pounds! 
), HIGH-ALTITUDE rodent that is NOT NATIVE to the South Bay. The prime habitat for the marmot in California is ABOVE 6,000 feet in the Sierra Nevada!
The lost marmot was captured on Tuesday by workers from WildRescue (a wildlife rescue group based in Moss Landing) and city employees. The marmot probably traveled from Yosemite National Park to San Jose in the engine compartment of a vehicle owned by William Charlson, according to Rebecca Dmytryk of WildRescue.
Charlson owns a bed-and-breakfast inn near the park and had stopped in Tuolumne Meadows (photo above) on Saturday before driving to his daughter’s home on Cottle Avenue on Sunday. WildRescue, working with California wildlife officials, plans to return the marmot to Yosemite on Sunday, ideally to the area of her specific colony. Marmots hibernate from fall to spring, but she should get home in plenty of time!
-Bill at
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