Move over bears. Fat Marmot Week puts a spotlight on the alpine rodents

Fat Marmot Week is an online contest and fundraiser aimed at highlighting the plight of alpine marmots, small furry rodents living in North America, Europe, and Asia. The week-long event, starting Monday, aims to raise awareness and funds for the long-running research on these creatures, which is threatened by federal funding cuts.

Last winter was particularly harsh for marmots inhabiting high mountain regions in Colorado. Researchers report that approximately two-thirds of a population perished while hibernating due to insufficient snow cover, leading to extremely cold burrow conditions. Those that survived are now fattening up in preparation for winter and the upcoming Fat Marmot Week.

Marmots, often mistaken for bears, are larger than their furred relatives, weighing up to 13 pounds (6 kilograms) during the fattening phase. The rodents use a state of deep hibernation, characterized by a significantly reduced body temperature, to conserve energy during the long winter months.

The Fat Marmot Week has a serious purpose - to drum up donations for marmot research. Scientists behind the project, led by Dan Blumstein from the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory, are eager to engage the public and generate interest in their work. The event mirrors the success of Fat Bear Week, an online contest celebrating the plump brown bears of Alaska.

The research on marmots, one of the world's longest-running studies of individual mammals, is a collaborative effort between UCLA and the University of Ottawa. The carefully observed changes in marmot populations, such as fewer pollinators and encroaching sagebrush, reflect broader environmental changes impacted by human-caused climate change.