Last winter was harsh for marmots living in the high Colorado mountains. Researchers reported that two-thirds of one group perished during hibernation due to sparse snow cover. Those that survived are preparing for the first Fat Marmot Week.

Beginning Monday, Fat Marmot Week is similar to the online contest Fat Bear Week. This event is light-hearted but serves a serious purpose: generating funds for ongoing research threatened by federal funding cuts.

We’re going to be laughing our way down as the Titanic sinks, said Dan Blumstein, project leader at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory in Gothic, Colorado.

What is a Marmot?

A marmot is a cat-sized, furry ground squirrel found in North America, Europe, and Asia. There are about 15 species worldwide including groundhogs, which have a dedicated day on February 2 in the U.S. and Canada. Yellow-bellied marmots populate the Rocky Mountains, often seen by hikers on boulders or amid wildflowers.

Marmots are not shy near trails. They might even steal a snack from passersby. Researchers use dye to mark marmots for identification, swab their cheeks, measure their feet, and sometimes trap them in wire boxes with oat and peanut butter bait.

Emily Renkey, a master’s student at the University of California, Los Angeles, noted that marmots can be social or prefer solitude. Katie Adler, a UCLA doctoral student, explained that personalities make some marmots wary of traps.

Hibernation Habits

Unlike bears, marmots enter a deeper hibernation. Their body temperatures drop to approximately 41 degrees Fahrenheit (5 degrees Celsius). Blumstein described handling a marmot during hibernation as lifting a fuzzy, cold rock. These creatures breathe only once every minute or two. To prepare for hibernation, marmots double their weight to about 13 pounds (6 kilograms) and then lose that mass while dormant.

Impact of Poor Snowpack

Last year’s scant snowfall and warm temperatures denied Colorado marmots a protective snow layer for their burrows. Researchers believe this lack of cover caused cold deaths. The region’s snowpack was the worst on record in the Upper Colorado River Basin. Human-induced climate change increased the likelihood of this snow drought by 14 times, according to a new study.

Researchers at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory also observed fewer pollinators and an increase of sagebrush encroaching on wildflower valleys. Changes in precipitation affect downstream water availability for farmers and communities.

The snowmelt here impacts the Colorado River, which impacts our drinking water, Renkey emphasized. What happens in these mountains impacts all of us.

Research and Funding

The study in Gothic, located about 20 miles south of Aspen, began in 1962. It’s led by researchers from UCLA and the University of Ottawa. This project is one of the longest-running studies of individual mammals. Researchers, sometimes called marmoteers, take advantage of comprehensive data for ongoing research. However, funding cuts resulted in the loss of one-third of graduate students in Blumstein’s UCLA department.

Fat Marmot Week aims to generate interest and donations. Among notable rodents are Stonehenge, who chirps at mountain bikers, and Citroen, whose mate leads this matriarchal society. Voting kicks off Monday. They shared marmot videos on the OnlyFans platform. A super fan created a meme coin called $OnlyMarms, donating transaction fees to the research, raising about $100,000.

The team aims to secure three years of funding, totaling over $200,000, to sustain research efforts.

People have to find funding in ways we’ve never thought of before, Adler stated. Like reaching out to the broader community to get people engaged.