Exclusive: Meet the inaugural winner of Fat Marmot Week
The Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory hosted a 'Fat Marmot Week' competition to raise awareness for their long-term research on yellow-bellied marmots. A marmot named Dawn was crowned the winner for gaining the most weight to prepare for winter hibernation.
Why it matters
It highlights the importance of long-term ecological studies in understanding how wildlife adapts to changing environments.
Annnnd there's a winner in the first-ever Fat Marmot Week!
The competition was among eight yellow-bellied marmots in Colorado vying to gain the most weight before winter hibernation. The Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory's Marmot Project hosted Fat Marmot Week as a way to hype up these cat-sized alpine rodents, in the face of cuts to research funding.
Yellow-bellied marmots hibernate to survive the snowy high-mountain winters. They curl up, lower their body temperatures, and slow their breathing. They spend more than half the year like this, relying on their stored fat. Thus: Fat Marmot Week.
Marmot enthusiasts were encouraged to cheer on Dawn, G, Dan's Hat, Citroen, Open Kite, 1, Dandelion, and Stonehenge as the spent the month of August bulking up.
Weekend Edition had the honor of exclusively announcing the popular vote winner — the marmot that the public crowned as the fattest of them all.
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