Summer is a time for transformation. The long days, warm weather, and outdoor adventures provide the perfect opportunity for people to embrace a tanner, fitter, and more relaxed version of themselves. It’s a season of change for yellow-bellied marmots (Marmota flaviventer), too—except for these large ground squirrels get unbelievably fat, and their lives literally depend on it.
Now, the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory (RMBL) Marmot Project is spreading knowledge about this species’ annual weight gain with Fat Marmot Week. Just like Katmai National Park and Preserve in Alaska’s annual Fat Bear Week, participants in the online event can vote for their favorite round rodent from Monday, August 24, through Friday, August 28. The competing marmots are identified via non-toxic fur dye, and include some creative names, including Citroen, Stonehenge, and Dan’s Hat.
“It’s fun to root for the chunkiest marmot, but behind the fun and games is a deathly serious competition against nature to pile on fat to survive the long, cold winter. And these days, with less predictable weather and wild fluctuations in snowfall, survival is not guaranteed,” Dan Blumstein, who studies marmots at the University of California, Los Angeles, said in a statement. He is co-director of the RMBL Marmot Project. “Importantly, marmots give us a window on the health of high-alpine ecosystems.”
Yellow-bellied marmots live throughout the Rocky Mountains, the Intermountain West and California’s Sierra Nevada and White Mountains. They are true hibernators, meaning that once they hit the sack for the winter, almost nothing can wake them until the spring. Their body temperature and metabolism plummet, and their heart rate drops to a few beats per minute. And despite being the most famous hibernating creatures, bears don’t truly hibernate. They enter a lighter, sleeplike state called torpor, and their body temperature stays pretty high.
This dramatic lifestyle explains why the rodents need to spend their summers inhaling as much grass and wildflowers as they possibly can. They can double their body size, and now marmot fans can decide which one does it best. Specifically, participants are expected to vote for “the marmot they think best exemplifies healthy hibernation preparation,” according to the team.The competition is also spreading awareness about how climate change is making things harder for the species.
The winner will be announced on August 29. May the chunkiest chonker win!
The post Vote for your favorite chonky rodent during Fat Marmot Week appeared first on Popular Science.
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