Colorado Researchers Launch Fat Marmot Week After 2-3 Population Die-Off and Federal Funding Cuts
Updated
Updated · The Guardian · Aug 21
Colorado Researchers Launch Fat Marmot Week After 2-3 Population Die-Off and Federal Funding Cuts
3 articles · Updated · The Guardian · Aug 21
Summary
Monday marks the first Fat Marmot Week, an online voting contest modeled on Fat Bear Week that researchers hope will draw donations for marmot studies in Colorado.
Two-thirds of one monitored population died last winter after scant snow left hibernating marmots without insulation; researchers said numbers fell from more than 160 animals to 60.
The fundraising push targets a long-running UCLA-led project at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory in Gothic, where marmot research has run since 1962 despite recent federal funding cuts.
Yellow-bellied marmots double their weight to about 13 pounds before hibernating for more than half the year, making their pre-winter bulk central to both the contest and the science.
The event also underscores broader climate strain in the Rockies: this year's Upper Colorado River Basin snowpack was the worst on record, and a new study said human-caused warming made the snow drought 14 times more likely.