Amazing: Marmot Rides From Colorado to Minnesota in Car’s Wheel Well

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Summer is the time a lot of us hit the road on vacation, but you've probably never taken a journey like this marmot recently did!

Silverton, Colorado and Roseville, Minnesota are quite a ways apart. In fact, Google Maps says the journey is 1,241 miles and will take you over 19 hours by car to make the trip. Which is what one yellow-bellied marmot just did-- all while clinging perilously to wheel well and undercarriage of a vehicle!

I first saw this amazing journey on the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center of Minnesota (WRC) Facebook page over the weekend. They posted pictures of team members tending to the poor marmot (which is a type of rodent, the largest member of the squirrel family, and isn't found here in Minnesota) and is after it had been referred to the center by a Minnesotan who had been vacationing in Colorado.

The post notes that the WRC believes the poor marmot sought shelter in the wheel well after being involved in a 'tangle' with another animal when the car was parked at a trailhead near Silverton, in western Colorado. She then made the unlikely 5-day journey back to Roseville, Minnesota, while clinging to the car in the wheel well-- something the WRC called 'once-in-a-lifetime!'

Of course, as you might imagine, that journey was tough on the female marmot, with the WRC noting, "She's emaciated from five days without food or water (amazing she was strong enough to cling to the car), has some burns and abscesses on her, and oddly has a mild case of lead toxicity."

The post went on to say that when the marmot once recovers, she will then be moved to another wildlife hospital for release back to her home territory. How terrifying must that trip have been? We drove out to Colorado and back earlier this summer, and I know firsthand that the long drive can take its toll on you-- even when you're IN the vehicle! After all that, I hope she recovers and can lead an uneventful rest of her life back in the mountains once she's healed!

Speaking of animals, while we have a number of those who are also native to Minnesota, marmots, of course, aren't. Keep scrolling to check out some incredible pictures of wildlife from not just here in Minnesota, but around the world as well!

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