Vancouver Island marmots are usually described as having dark brown fur. But this picture from photographer John Deal shows that it would be quite a challenge to describe marmots using only a single color!
When marmot pups first come above ground, their fur has never seen the sun, and so they are a uniform shade of dark brown with white around their nose and on their stomach, chest, and sometimes on their forehead. As they spend more and more time above ground, their dark brown fur is gradually faded to a lighter cinnamon colour. At this stage, it is still very challenging to tell them apart! When marmots are two years old, they start a process called “molting,” which replaces their light, faded fur with new, dark fur. This usually happens starting near their noses and spreading slowly backwards to the tip of their tail. Two-year olds can look quite silly – their head, neck, upper arms and back will look dark, but their bottom half might look like they are wearing bright orange pants! Adults can look even more unique, with a molt pattern made entirely of patches of fur of different ages and colours.
This photograph shows a 4yo female named Hollis. I wonder what she’ll look like next year!