Some in the seniors’ community at Eagle Grove call him Dill Pickle, because he seems to like to eat dill and cucumbers out of the garden. Others call him Ms. Daisy, though the reason is unclear. To Joy Moon, he’s Whistler, because the community is named after the whistle sound the animal makes.
Whatever his name, the yellow-bellied marmot visiting the neighbourhood of late has worked his way into the lives of many in the tightknit community of cottages tucked into the southeast section of downtown Squamish.
“I just love him,” said Moon, who describes the animal as the size of a small cat, brown with a yellow belly and white on his face and nose. He has small ears and big front teeth, she said.
“He’s cute,” she said.
The marmot is also rather rare in Squamish. Meg Toom of Wildlife BC said she hasn’t heard of any in the district because they are an alpine animal.
The marmot was spotted in and around the seniors’ complex about a week or two ago, according to Moon.
He tucked up on a car’s engine at one point and that is how Moon figures the animal, which is more common in the Whistler area, made its way to Squamish.
“I think he got up inside a motor... and he is dang lucky he didn’t climb out down in Vancouver,” Moon said.
The marmot eventually burrowed into the community garden on the complex property. He pops up and down and chatters at visitors to the garden and has made himself snacks of the turnips, peas and other vegetables he discovers.
He has been the talk of the complex, according to Moon, but not everyone is as smitten with him as Moon.
“Nobody really cared about the dill, but then he started in on the cucumbers and he really likes bean leaves and then some people were not so happy,” she said.
The marmot seems used to people, Moon said, because he doesn’t run away when people are nearby.
“If you are in the garden and he is there, he will stay – I think he likes us,” said Moon.
Though the animal has mostly been a welcome visitor, the residents know it is not best for the wild animal to be so intertwined with people, so a resident has contacted both a humane pest control business and a wildlife expert to have the marmot removed and taken back closer to Whistler.
Hopefully, there, Moon said, he will be able to meet up with his colony.
