Updates from the Team

Today we released the first 3 marmots of the season. Stuart, Flores, and Sidney joined the colony at Mount Washington Alpine Resort with seeming enthusiasm.

Born in captivity at the The Calgary Zoo, this the first time these marmots have experienced the wild, and the speed with which they made that transition was impressive. Within moments the marmots were exploring the world around their new home, and sampling the local vegetation.

There are still more marmots from the The Toronto Zoo to be released, but it is great to see the first ones out adapting so quickly after their release!

Field Crew Norberto and Jordan help veterinarian Malcolm get the marmots into their new home. Its a new and frightening experience for the marmots, and they don’t always want to go. Malcolm and Norberto position the trap and encourage the marmot to go into the nest box by tickling its feet.

The marmots today were poking their heads out immediately. These are two of Flores, Sidney, and Stuart.

Within a couple minutes, the first marmot is out! This is quick, often the marmots will spend 5 to 15 minutes in the familiar nest box before emerging.

Looks like this marmot has already picked out her/his favorite lookout rock.

Time to explore, and coax the others out of the nestbox! As tempting as it is to stay, we need to let them be for bit. They are in the middle of the Mount Washington colony, and should be safe to explore their new environment.

Today we are celebrating the birthdays of all our Vancouver Island Marmots! Now you might ask, how is it that all marmots are born on June 1st, and how do we know?

Peeking behind the curtain reveals that of course not all marmots are actually born on the same day, and we don’t know exactly when they are born. Marmot pups are born in the hibernaculum, and they stay in the warm dark den for about 30 days. We won’t actually see any pups until early July, when they first start to explore the world beyond the burrow.
We do know that the pups are born around June 1st, and it’s just convenient really to roll over all the ages all on the same day.

So here’s to a very happy birthday(-ish) to all the marmots, and our wish that lots of pups are recently born, being born, or about to be born on the mountains!

A small update on some of our “Star Wars” marmots: It turns out that, Jabba and Amidala hibernated together! We detected them alive yesterday in the same hibernaculum. Hopefully they’ll be out the burrow soon – and maybe some pups will follow them later in the year!

Here is “Hanna Solo” peeping out from the nest box back when we released these marmots in 2016.

Recently, Executive Director Adam Taylor gave a presentation to Kindergarten classes at Hans Helgensen Elementary on Vancouver Island Marmots. Adam taught them about their habitat, hibernation, and some of the challenges that Vancouver Island Marmots face.

We were absolutely delighted to receive a pair of beautiful thank you coloring books! These are a just a small sample of the wonderful drawings and facts the students shared.

Thank you for having us Hans Helgensen!

It’s time! The first Vancouver Island marmot emergence hole of the year was spotted today at Mt Washington by Field Coordinator Mike Lester. Mike notes that there are no tracks, but at least two of the marmots are detectable and alive! This is right on time for the marmots, and very exciting for us!

Maker:0x4c,Date:2017-11-15,Ver:4,Lens:Kan03,Act:Lar01,E-Y