Vancouver Island marmot travels long distance looking for love

Camas is pictured in Errington. (Courtesy: Marmot Recovery Foundation)

Camas, a three-year-old Vancouver Island marmot, went looking for love and was found in Errington last week—which is nowhere near where he was supposed to be.

Using a radio transmitter, the Marmot Recovery Foundation last located the lonely marmot around Green Mountain in the Nanaimo Lakes region last month and he eventually went out of range.

They figure he travelled 30 to 40 kilometres as the crow flies to Errington, where someone contacted the foundation saying they spotted a marmot in the area.

Camas was then captured by crews from the recovery foundation and taken to their breeding facility on Mount Washington.

Other than being a little underweight, he was given a clean bill of health and is no longer looking for love.

"We've actually put him with a female," says Malcolm McAdie, veterinarian and captive breeding coordinator for the foundation.

"Next Monday our plan is to move Camas and his new girlfriend into Strathcona to augment some of the colonies we are trying to establish."

Camas was born in captivity at the Calgary Zoo and was released into the wild to a colony on Gemini Mountain, but soon ventured off to nearby Green Mountain.

The foundation adds that it's not rare for rouge marmots to venture off. A few years ago, a marmot was found in Bamfield, which was 60 kilometres away from the nearest colony.

If you find a Vancouver Island Marmot wandering, you are asked to contact the Marmot Recovery Foundation.