This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: 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. Those that survived are doing well, fattening up in time not just for fall and hibernation season but … drumroll, please … the very first Fat Marmot Week.
Just like Fat Bear Week, an online contest to vote for Alaskan brown bears plumped up for winter, Fat Marmot Week—beginning Monday—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. "In some sense, we're going to be laughing our way down as the Titanic sinks," said Dan Blumstein, leader of the project launched decades ago at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory in Gothic, Colorado. "Because what else are you going to do?" 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, which have their own special day, Feb. 2, in the U.S. and Canada. In the Rocky Mountains, yellow-bellied marmots are plentiful. Hikers often spot these charismatic creatures perched on boulders or scurrying through wildflowers.
Marmots aren't shy near trails popular with people. Watch out: A bold one might swipe your snack. Like people, marmots have personalities and are "flexibly social," meaning some like to intermingle in colonies of up to 30 animals while others prefer solitude, according to Emily Renkey, a master's program student at the University of California, Los Angeles.
"We kind of understand these marmots just by looking at them sometimes, because we can kind of tell who's who just by how they behave and how they interact with one another," said Katie Adler, a UCLA doctoral student. Some marmots are difficult to study because they are wary of researchers' efforts to trap them using wire boxes baited with an enticing mixture of oats and peanut butter, Renkey said. "Others, you could trap three or four times in the same morning," she said.
While hibernating bears snooze in a state called torpor, allowing them to wake up—or be woken up—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. "You pick up a hibernating marmot and it's this fuzzy ball and it feels like a cold rock with fur.
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