As much as we try to prepare them, when we release marmots to the wild, the change to their lives is dramatic and sudden. Up to the day of release, their entire lives have been spent in captivity, with food served in bowls (even the wildflowers go into bowls) with a cozy nest box in the relatively constrained environment of the captive breeding facility.
Then, one day they are suddenly loaded into boxes, backpacks, and even helicopters, and then dropped into a mountain meadow. Instead of bowls, boxes, and walls there are meadows, mountains, and boundless open space.
Yet within an hour of being released to the relative safety and familiarity of a burrow, these marmots are out, investigating the new possibilities of their new lives.
Right now, we are all being asked to make adaptations in our lives. I hope we can accomplish the changes we need to make with as much grace as the marmots.
