60 captive-bred Vancouver Island marmots to be released

Six captive-bred Vancouver Island marmots looked out of their boxes on Mount Washington and took their first steps to a life in the wild last week.Big hopes ride on the tiny backs of young marmots like Lenna and Lemar, Zachary and Snowflake and Kendra and Geordi La Forge as researchers try to rebuild the fragile population of one of the world’s most endangered mammals.The timid rodents face an uphill battle for survival amid food shortages, the swings of climate change and predators.

That’s an improvement from the 200 marmots recorded in 2022, when about 50 animals were lost and there was virtually no reproduction in the wild due to extreme snow packs. Taylor said the marmots released around Mount Washington have a better survival rate in their first year, usually about 80%, because the presence of human activity such as mountain biking and hiking keeps predators like cougars in check. In more remote locations where predators are less inhibited, survival rates of marmots are down to 40%, he said.

In 2013, the population hit a high of 346, but weather and predators, among other factors, took a huge toll. The following year, 266 animals were counted. By 2017, the numbers had dropped again, to 167. Since then, the population has been slowly recovering.

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