The first-ever Fat Marmot Week is set to begin on Monday. Researchers hope this online contest, which allows participants to vote for marmots fattening up for winter, will become a popular wildlife watching event.
Beyond being a fun activity, Fat Marmot Week has a serious objective: to raise money for scientists conducting long-running research on marmots at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory in Gothic, Colorado. This funding is sought following federal funding cuts.
Last winter proved challenging for marmots in the Colorado mountains, with researchers stating that two-thirds of one population died during hibernation due to inadequate snow cover. This year's snowpack in the Upper Colorado River Basin was the worst on record, with a new study confirming that the human-caused climate crisis made the snow drought approximately 14 times more likely.
The study, run by UCLA researchers, has been ongoing since 1962, making it one of the world's longest-running studies of individual mammals. Funding cuts have led to the loss of one-third of graduate students in the UCLA department involved in the research.