Chubby marmots join subscription service after sanctuary faces money trouble
A biologist studying marmots in Colorado has launched an 'OnlyFans' style subscription service to fund his research after facing budget cuts. The account, titled 'OnlyMarms', features family-friendly videos of marmots to generate financial support for his long-running field study.
Why it matters
It illustrates the creative and unconventional methods researchers are adopting to secure funding in an era of reduced academic grants.
OnlyFans users scrolling for their usual content stumbled upon something unexpected this summer: videos of yellow-bellied marmots popping out of Colorado burrows. There were no thirst traps or filters, just some rodents doing what rodents do. The content was entirely ‘family-friendly’, contrary to what the platform is known for.Some thought it was one of the internet’s strangest jokes, or a cry for help. It turns out it was both.How chubby marmots became influencersMarmots, the chubby ground-dwelling squirrels, turned to the adult platform in an ‘act of desperation’, just like many humans on it. Only, they were put there by a scientist trying to save decades of research from slipping through the cracks.The scientist behind this unusual move is Dr Daniel Blumstein, a Colorado-based biologist who heads one of the world’s longest-running marmot field studies.
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