{"id":1015167,"date":"2026-08-21T15:34:27","date_gmt":"2026-08-21T15:34:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1015167\/"},"modified":"2026-08-21T15:34:27","modified_gmt":"2026-08-21T15:34:27","slug":"fat-marmot-week-aims-to-raise-awareness-and-funds-for-rodent-research","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1015167\/","title":{"rendered":"Fat Marmot Week aims to raise awareness and funds for rodent research"},"content":{"rendered":"

GOTHIC, Colo. (AP) \u2014 Last winter was tough for marmots living high in the Colorado mountains, where researchers say two-thirds of one population died while hibernating because of insufficient snow cover<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Those that survived are doing well, fattening up in time not just for fall and hibernation season but \u2026 drumroll, please \u2026 the very first Fat Marmot Week.<\/p>\n

Just like Fat Bear Week<\/a>, an online contest to vote for Alaskan brown bears plumped up for winter, Fat Marmot Week \u2014 beginning Monday \u2014 is mostly just for fun, but it also has a serious side: Scientists need to drum up donations for their long-running research into the rodents to keep it going through federal funding cuts.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn some sense, we\u2019re going to be laughing our way down as the Titanic sinks,\u201d said Dan Blumstein, leader of the project launched decades ago at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory in Gothic, Colorado.<\/a> \u201cBecause what else are you going to do?\u201d<\/p>\n

But wait. What\u2019s a marmot?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A marmot named 9 sits outside of her den Thursday, Aug. 6, 2026, in Gothic, Colo. (AP Photo\/Brittany Peterson)<\/p>\n

A marmot named 9 sits outside of her den Thursday, Aug. 6, 2026, in Gothic, Colo. (AP Photo\/Brittany Peterson)<\/p>\n

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A marmot is a cat-sized, furry ground squirrel that lives in burrows in North America, Europe and Asia. The 15 or so species worldwide include groundhogs,<\/a> which have their own special day, Feb. 2,<\/a> in the U.S. and Canada.<\/p>\n

In the Rocky Mountains, yellow-bellied marmots are plentiful. Hikers often spot these charismatic creatures perched on boulders or scurrying through wildflowers.<\/p>\n

Marmots aren\u2019t shy near trails popular with people. Watch out: A bold one might swipe your snack.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Researchers<\/p>\n

Researchers mark a marmot with dye for identification Friday, Aug. 7, 2026, in Gothic, Colo. (AP Photo\/Brittany Peterson)<\/p>\n

Researchers mark a marmot with dye for identification Friday, Aug. 7, 2026, in Gothic, Colo. (AP Photo\/Brittany Peterson)<\/p>\n

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\"Researchers<\/p>\n

\n Researchers swab the cheek of a marmot Thursday, Aug. 6, 2026, in Gothic, Colo. (AP Photo\/Brittany Peterson)\n <\/p>\n

Researchers swab the cheek of a marmot Thursday, Aug. 6, 2026, in Gothic, Colo. (AP Photo\/Brittany Peterson)<\/p>\n

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\"A<\/p>\n

\n A researcher measures a marmot’s foot Thursday, Aug. 6, 2026, in Gothic, Colo. (AP Photo\/Brittany Peterson)\n <\/p>\n

A researcher measures a marmot’s foot Thursday, Aug. 6, 2026, in Gothic, Colo. (AP Photo\/Brittany Peterson)<\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A marmot pup looks out from a trap Thursday, Aug. 6, 2026, in Gothic, Colo. (AP Photo\/Brittany Peterson)<\/p>\n

A marmot pup looks out from a trap Thursday, Aug. 6, 2026, in Gothic, Colo. (AP Photo\/Brittany Peterson)<\/p>\n

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Like people, marmots have personalities and are \u201cflexibly social,\u201d meaning some like to intermingle in colonies of up to 30 animals while others prefer solitude, according to Emily Renkey, a master\u2019s program student at the University of California, Los Angeles. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe kind of understand these marmots just by looking at them sometimes, because we can kind of tell who\u2019s who just by how they behave and how they interact with one another,\u201d said Katie Adler, a UCLA doctoral student.<\/p>\n

Some marmots are difficult to study because they are wary of researchers\u2019 efforts to trap them using wire boxes baited with an enticing mixture of oats and peanut butter, Renkey said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOthers, you could trap three or four times in the same morning,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Marmots are big-time snoozers<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A marmot named 9 sits with one of her pups Thursday, Aug. 6, 2026, in Gothic, Colo. (AP Photo\/Brittany Peterson)<\/p>\n

A marmot named 9 sits with one of her pups Thursday, Aug. 6, 2026, in Gothic, Colo. (AP Photo\/Brittany Peterson)<\/p>\n

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While hibernating bears snooze in a state called torpor, allowing them to wake up \u2014 or be woken up \u2014 every now and then, marmots slip into a far deeper form of hibernation. Their body temperature drops from about that of a human to as low as 41 degrees Fahrenheit (5 degrees Celsius), not much warmer than their burrows in winter.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou pick up a hibernating marmot and it\u2019s this fuzzy ball and it feels like a cold rock with fur. It\u2019s completely surreal,\u201d Blumstein said. \u201cThey breathe once a minute or two.\u201d<\/p>\n

To prepare for winter, the animals do a tremendous amount of fattening. They double their weight to as much as 13 pounds (6 kilograms), then lose all of that bulk during half a year or more of hibernation.<\/p>\n

\u201cMarmots come out of the ground really skinny, relative to what they look like now, at least,\u201d Adler said.<\/p>\n

A poor snowpack affects more than the ski season<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A road winds through the snow-covered Rocky Mountains at Hoosier Pass on April 18, 2022, near Blue River, Colo. (AP Photo\/Brittany Peterson, File)<\/p>\n

A road winds through the snow-covered Rocky Mountains at Hoosier Pass on April 18, 2022, near Blue River, Colo. (AP Photo\/Brittany Peterson, File)<\/p>\n

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Last winter, scant snowfall and warm temperatures due to global warming<\/a> deprived many Colorado marmots of an insulating blanket of snow over their burrows. Researchers believe their hibernation quarters got too chilly, causing many to die of cold.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had over 160 animals and we ended with 60 at the start of this season,\u201d Blumstein said. \u201cMost of them died because of the lack of snow cover.\u201d<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s snowpack<\/a> was the worst on record in the Upper Colorado River Basin, which includes Wyoming, Colorado, Utah and New Mexico. Human-caused climate change made the snow drought about 14 times more likely, a new study confirms<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Hundreds of researchers at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory have observed changes including fewer bees and other pollinators, and sagebrush encroaching in valleys once dominated by wildflowers.<\/p>\n

Precipitation changes, meanwhile, literally cascade downstream to where farmers<\/a> and communities<\/a> need water to survive<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe snowmelt here impacts the Colorado River which impacts our drinking water<\/a>,\u201d Renkey said. \u201cWhat happens in these mountains doesn\u2019t stay in these mountains. It impacts all of us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mouseketeers, musketeers and marmoteers<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Researchers<\/p>\n

Researchers from the University of California, Los Angeles measure a marmot Friday, Aug. 7, 2026, in Gothic, Colo. (AP Photo\/Brittany Peterson)<\/p>\n

Researchers from the University of California, Los Angeles measure a marmot Friday, Aug. 7, 2026, in Gothic, Colo. (AP Photo\/Brittany Peterson)<\/p>\n

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The study in Gothic, about 20 miles (32 kilometers) south of Aspen, is run by researchers from UCLA and the University of Ottawa in Ontario. It was launched in 1962, making it one of the world\u2019s longest-running studies of individual mammals. <\/p>\n

The marmot researchers affectionately call themselves \u201cmarmoteers.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt allows graduate students and other people to come in and suddenly capitalize on this knowledge and ask questions. Without doing all the grunt work,\u201d Blumstein said.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Columbia<\/p>\n

Columbia University undergraduate student Isabel Norman, left, learns how to weigh a marmot under the supervision of Katie Adler, a doctoral student at the University of California, Los Angeles, Thursday, Aug. 6, 2026, in Gothic, Colo. (AP Photo\/Brittany Peterson)<\/p>\n

Columbia University undergraduate student Isabel Norman, left, learns how to weigh a marmot under the supervision of Katie Adler, a doctoral student at the University of California, Los Angeles, Thursday, Aug. 6, 2026, in Gothic, Colo. (AP Photo\/Brittany Peterson)<\/p>\n

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Funding cuts have caused Blumstein\u2019s UCLA department to lose one-third of its graduate students. Fat Marmot Week is one approach to attract interest \u2014 and hopefully donations \u2014 to keep the work going. Among the rodents on display: Stonehenge, who chirps at mountain bikers; and Citroen, whose mate is a leader of this matriarchal marmot motherland. Voting opens Monday.<\/p>\n

The researchers have also been posting marmot videos to the OnlyFans adult content platform. To capitalize on the attention those posts have garnered, a \u201csuper fan\u201d created a meme coin, a type of cryptocurrency, called $OnlyMarms, and donates transaction fees to the research program. That alone has raised around $100,000.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Emily<\/p>\n

Emily Renkey, a University of California, Los Angeles masters student, moves a marmot trap Friday, Aug. 7, 2026, in Gothic, Colo. (AP Photo\/Brittany Peterson)<\/p>\n

Emily Renkey, a University of California, Los Angeles masters student, moves a marmot trap Friday, Aug. 7, 2026, in Gothic, Colo. (AP Photo\/Brittany Peterson)<\/p>\n

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The team needs to bank three years of funding \u2014 over $200,000 \u2014 to ensure marmot research can continue next summer.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople have to find funding in ways that we\u2019ve never really thought of before,\u201d Adler said. \u201cLike reaching out to the broader community to get people engaged.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

The Associated Press\u2019 climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP\u2019s standards<\/a> for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"GOTHIC, Colo. (AP) \u2014 Last winter was tough for marmots living high in the Colorado mountains, where researchers…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1015168,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[27],"tags":[13671,934,10809,10106,285,13672,4439,406121,406120,57,406119,11198,11199,159,61,67,132,68,436,424,313,26011,837,13669,1669,17860],"class_list":["post-1015167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-ak-state-wire","tag-alaska","tag-bears","tag-climate-and-environment","tag-climate-change","tag-co-state-wire","tag-colorado","tag-dan-blumstein","tag-emily-renkey","tag-general-news","tag-katie-adler","tag-new-mexico","tag-nm-state-wire","tag-science","tag-u-s-news","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-ut-state-wire","tag-utah","tag-weather","tag-weight-management","tag-wildlife","tag-wy-state-wire","tag-wyoming","tag-zoology"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117134234718383419","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1015167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1015167"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1015167\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1015168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1015167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1015167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1015167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}