The Marmot Recovery Foundation and marmot enthusiasts ventured up to Mount Washington on June 23 to participate in releasing marmots into the wild.
The one female and three male marmots were raised as a part of a breeding program to help this critically endangered species unique to Vancouver Island.
In fact, Marmota vancouverensis is the only mammal endemic to the island, and in 2003, there were fewer than 30 left in the wild. Due to the hard work of the Marmot Recovery Foundation, its partners, and supporters, the population has risen to over 400.
Still, the foundation’s executive director Adam Taylor is worried about Mount Washington’s no-snow year this past winter.
“I feel like I spend a lot of my life worrying about the marmots,” Taylor said. “I worry about them during the wintertime and whether hibernation is going to go well. I worry about them in the summertime and whether there’s enough rain in the alpine and whether they’re going to get eaten by a cougar.”
“And then you get brief moments like these when you get to release them… these are the moments you work for.”
The last three years, the marmot populations have done really well, but the lack of snow this year meant their hibernating shelters were less insulated from those extreme alpine temperature plunges.
“We saw overwinter survival drop from the low 90 (per cent range) to the low 80s, so not catastrophic but distinctly lower,” said Taylor.
On the day of the marmot release, the mountain was unseasonably dry. Less moisture could mean less lush vegetation for the marmots to eat as the summer progresses. Marmots’ water intake mainly comes from the vegetation they consume, as well.
The marmot enthusiasts gathered halfway up a scrubby alpine slope and spoke in hushed voices as they waited for the marmots to be collected from the nearby breeding centre.
After a short while, volunteers and Recovery Foundation members emerged from behind a stand of trees, processing quietly across the slope in a line, carrying the marmots in covered cages on their backs. Then they carefully unloaded their precious cargo near a burrow-like shelter that will serve as the marmots’ temporary home base while they acclimatize to the wild. Three Recovery Foundation members remained with the marmots, calmly releasing them into the burrow, one by one, as everyone watched from a comfortable distance.
After about 15 minutes of silent waiting on the hill, the group saw the first tawny muzzle poke out from the den. Slowly, each marmot emerged, checking in with one another as they cautiously stood up on their hindquarters, sniffed the air in typical marmot fashion, and nibbled on vegetation.
According to Taylor, the released marmots showed early promise of resilience in their new habitat.
“Anytime there was a disturbance or they got scared, they ran back into the burrow. That’s really important because these marmots, they’ve never experienced the wild before; they’ve never had an actual wild burrow like this,” Taylor said.
“The worry would be they would get released, and when they got worried, they’d bomb downhill and not learn where their actual safe spot is. These guys clocked out and went exactly where they needed to go to feel safe. It’s a new world, and you are already seeing them beginning to eat.”
These four tenacious yearlings are the progeny of the Mount Washington Tony Barrett Marmot Recovery Centre breeding program, which partners with similar programs at the Toronto and Calgary Zoos.
“I am incredibly grateful to work with this species,” said Taylor. “And I want to acknowledge that this species has been saved by public support. Eighty per cent of our funding comes from public donations, and if it weren’t for that, the marmot would be extinct today.”
“This is something that, as a province and as a country, we should be really proud that we’ve stepped up to save a species. This is a globally significant program that has been made possible by the generosity of Canadians.”
For more information on the Marmot Recovery Foundation and to learn how you can help the Vancouver Island marmot, visit marmots.org.