Video taken high in the alpine of the Haley Lake Ecological Reserve north of Cowichan Lake and posted this week by the Marmot Recovery Foundation shows the first few moments after three endangered Vancouver Island Marmots were released into the wild.

“It’s amazing to see the viewscapes from their mountain homes,” said Adam Taylor, Marmot Recovery Foundation executive director.

“You release it into the wild and within half an hour they’re coming out, they’re exploring, you know you can watch them in the video sampling wild grasses like right away.”

Watch the report below:

The release in the video happened in early July.

Fifty-three marmots have been released this year including the final two on Thursday.

The ongoing effort to reintroduce the marmots to Vancouver Island using a captive breeding program began two decades ago when less than 30 marmots were left.

“They were pretty close to extinction and the real belief was the wild population was probably destined for extinction,” he said.

Now there are 420 Vancouver Island Marmots.

“That’s a pretty dramatic increase but (they’re) still profoundly at risk. You know if we discovered a species where there are only 420 individuals we’d be launching a recovery effort,” Taylor said.

The marmot recovery is happening, but happening slowly. Only about 20 per cent of the animals released every year will survive as they face a changing habitat due to climate change and predation.

“The unfortunate reality for any small mammal species is that predation in particular is a driving factor in their lives and a lot of them will be eaten by predators,” added Taylor.

Vancouver Island marmots used to occupy territory from Nimpkish Lake to Cowichan Lake, but now there are only two colonies in the Strathcona Park-Mount Washington area and Nanaimo Lakes south.

There are encouraging signs, however.

“We’re seeing the marmot population not just thrive with the marmots that we’re releasing, but beginning to grow and expand and re-occupy some of their historic sites on their own and that, I mean that’s what we’ve been working on for 20 years,” said Taylor.

The rest of the year will be spent on trips into the field to monitor this year’s releases.