Daniel Blumstein

In the long-term study in Colorado, we've discovered that it's not about food that influences where marmots are or where marmots persist.

It's actually safety.

The irony is when you think about a happy marmot in the end of the year, it's like a bread loaf.

I mean, it's super fat.

And I think of like a squeeze tube of them trying to squeeze through, you know, get away from badgers coming after them.

So bottom line, I've not dug up burrows.

People have excavated groundhog burrows, which are more soily areas or rooty areas.

And, you know, they can be.

tens of feet, tens of meters long.

A main burrow typically has multiple entrances.

They may have a hibernacula in that.

But in their territory, in their home range, they have escape burrows as well.

And some individuals may have multiple main burrows.

What's really funny, watching them come out in the spring sometimes of the snow, if you're really lucky, we ski around in the spring, my happiest time of the year.

And, you know, we go where we know the marmots are hibernating, and all it is is a blanket of snow.

And then one day there might be a hole.

And if we're really lucky, we know where the burrows are, kind of.

We're looking, looking, looking, looking, looking on the snow-covered slopes,

And suddenly a hole appears, a nose appears, and a bunch of fleas fly out of the burrow.

No.