nature, Photography

A Marmot Update

54 Comments

Almost two weeks ago I published a piece indicating my concerns about the marmot colony in one of our nearby parks. You can take a look at it here. The gist is that I became quite unsettled about the degree to which the marmots were being fed, to the point that I was approached by one of them who begged for food.

That was very unusual behaviour. Up until a few weeks ago, the marmots had always scurried away when humans had come too close, but suddenly, people had started giving them a lot of food: bags of carrots, cucumbers, lettuce and other treats including nuts and berries.

Granted, these were healthy foods for the marmots, but the amount of it was causing ancillary problems: they were gaining weight, were losing their ability to forage for themselves and worst of all, were losing their fear of humans.

People were hand feeding them and the marmots were sitting on their laps, running over their shoulders and necks and the small ones were even climbing into their pockets. Now, marmots are very cute but they’re also wild animals; they carry ticks, fleas and sometimes, rabies.

Most people I know wouldn’t want to deal with the possibility of rocky mountain spotted fever, lime disease, bubonic plague, tapeworms or rabies, but marmots can potentially transmit all of these – or the pests – fleas and ticks – that also carry these diseases and live on the marmots.

Nope, humans being illogical humans, we believe that if it’s cute, it’s harmless. Or that it’s okay to feed wild animals because, well, we’re doing them a favour. Right?

So I decided that a visit to the city was warranted, and I learned that lots of other people have the same concerns as me, and that the city had decided that a warning sign was required.

And here it is (actually, there are two of them, one at each end of the marmot colony). Does it help to go to city hall? Yes, in this case it certainly did! I’m happy to report that these sweet little animals are back to feeding themselves, minimising our interaction with them and ensuring that they won’t be moved from their home or – worst of all – euthanised – because a child has been bitten or an adult has developed lime disease.

I wish the marmots long life and health and to us, many more years of marmot viewing pleasure – from a distance, that is.

Happy Saturday.

54 thoughts on “A Marmot Update”

  1. Excellent result, Lynette. The utter ignorance of so many people regarding wildlife always astounds me. If they would just take the trouble to educate themselves before they take any action, so many animals would be spared all sorts of indignities and inadvertent cruelty. Well done. And thanks for the lovely pictures.

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    1. Thank you very much, Stuart. I was very happy to see the signs! So many people just don’t think about the long-term consequences for the marmots (or for their actions in many other areas, too). It’s a type of entitled thinking that has a huge negative effect. It’s interesting that I’ve not seen any children or teenagers trying to feed them, only adults who should know better. At least there’s a measure of safety now for the marmots.

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      1. We have the same problem here, in the Forest of Dean, where wild boar were released years ago. Many visitors feed these creatures, which are potentially dangerous to dogs and children, and this has allowed them to breed to numbers far greater than the forest can cope. As a result, occasional culls are now happening to keep them under control.

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        1. That’s very sad to hear, Stuart. That was one of my concerns for the marmots, too. Their colony was clearly growing much too quickly for the size of their home. So many people don’t consider the consequences of their actions.

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  3. Ah good, a decent outcome and one for once where stupidity didn’t win. Funnily enough (it’s in our next post) we’ve just had the absolute opposite experience, whereby we were in such a remote place that the mammals (called vizcacha) had no knowledge of humans and thus no fear. They just sat nearby as we had lunch, as inquisitive about us as we were about them!

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    1. I was very happy to see those signs. At least the effort has been made to get Stupid to back off!

      That’s not something that doesn’t happen very much any more! It must have been lovely to sit there and curiously eye each other. Looking forward to your next post and reading more about your vizcacha encounter.

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  4. It is great that concerned citizens achieved this result. Hopefully this works long term. Similar signs are up in Vancouver, but I still see people ignoring them, even if a fine is attached. Many jut do not get it. If we want to preserve nature’s cuties, we have to let them live their lives at a distance. Happy Saturday Lynette. Allan

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    1. Thank you very much, Allan. I hope this works long term as well. I’ve seen people in Vancouver ignoring the signs, too; we’ll see how well these work in keeping people in their corner. I agree, many just don’t get it and don’t want to get it. Their own gratification always comes first.

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  5. …humans being illogical humans, we believe that if it’s cute, it’s harmless.

    Good for you! Glad for the positive outcome. Positive for the marmots anyway. Maybe not positive for certain illogical humans but they will never understand anyway.

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    1. I’ve come to the conclusion that we’re the most stupid smart species on Earth. Make no wonder that First Contact hasn’t occurred. The aliens took one look at us, our wars, pettiness, selfishness, cruelty, racism, self-destructiveness, hero worship et al and said to each other, let’s come back 500 years from now to see if they’ve survived and gotten over themselves. 😉

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        1. We don’t have an issue with them here at all but the city of Toronto has a massive problem that started with people feeding them. The ones there also carry rabies. There’s now unfortunately a huge trapping and euthanasia program because of all the problems and health-related dangers. A couple of years ago the city spent 31 million on special garbage bins to bar the raccoons but it took them only a week to learn how to get them open! They’re apparently very smart.

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    1. Thank you very much, Tricia. 😊 I agree. They’re already putting their natural skills to use again so they haven’t become completely dependent. Good thing though because they were definitely headed that way.

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    1. Thank you very much, Anneli. 😊 It was getting completely out of control with people sitting on the ground among them and the marmots scurrying all over them. Then they started approaching people on the footpath (as one did with me). Yes, it was only a matter of time before grief happened.

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    1. I was shocked at how quickly their behaviour changed, Bernie. Agreed – they went from very wary of humans to begging for food, so I’m glad they’re starting to return to their more usual behaviours now. Cheers.

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    1. Thank you very much, Laura. I was very happy to see that too. They are sweet little animals and while I know some people thought they were “helping” them, giving them food wasn’t in their best interests. They’re already beginning to return to a more wild state. Cheers.

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  19. The marmots are very adorable. Agreed, it is concerning how familiar they’re getting with humans. The begging for food and people feeding them from their hands isn’t great. It’s a shame people have a way of ruining things. Good for you for going to the city to do something about it.

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    1. Thank you very much. They sure are, Linda. They basically went from being very cautious of humans to begging and sitting on people’s laps for food in about two-a-half months. The change was astonishing and only occurred because people were arriving at their colony with huge bags – shopping bag sizes – of food. Given the growing demand and dependence on the handouts and people’s willingness to sit among them it was only a matter of time before someone was bitten or picked up a case of spotted fever. Then the marmots would be in trouble, not the people. Agreed, some people can be so untroubled by consequences.

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  21. What a conundrum. My first encounter with marmots was in the Mammoth Lakes region. They were not fed or friendly with humans at that point. (I thought I kept hearing bird chirps, then realized it was them). Hopefully it’s still that way.
    Being human brings its own conundrums. We move into wild spaces and many times need to learn how best to minimize our impact without harming the ecosystems.

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    1. Yes, the colonies routinely have a sentry or two posted and they use a high-pitched whistle to warn members of danger. This colony had completely dropped its sentries; if they saw people coming they left the safety of their rock pile home and approached to beg for food. The sign has only been there for a week but I’ve already seen a change for the positive in their behaviour.

      I agree that we have to learn how to minimise our impact, but one of the things I found annoying about this situation was that it was adults in their 40s, 50s, 60s, feeding them. People who should know better. I didn’t see a single child or teenager doing that.

      Thanks for commenting, Mark.

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