Daniel Blumstein

But at times we've had porcupines and marmots living under a cabin together.

And at times I've had to take porcupine quills out of marmot faces.

I love porcupines.

I mean, I pee on myself a lot.

I mean, you know, so I mean, you know.

That shouldn't be a criteria for having a pet.

So the social ones make good pets.

And a lot of people, a lot of people, there are Instagram feeds of people with house marmots.

But researchers and colleagues of mine in Russia, many of them have had house marmots.

And the social ones are super sweet.

And, you know, can be trained and they can be taken care of.

A woman used to send me pictures and write me and call me sometimes from Utah.

in the mountains and had a marmot but then and she sent me all these pictures i think i have one around the corner of them eating lace potato chips and it's completely obese it didn't hibernate but then in the spring it disappeared and she calls me in tears one day and she's like she left you know why would she leave me i'm like well maybe it was a coyote or maybe she dispersed because that's what they do on this disperse many of them disperse but why would she leave me it's very sad i love

No, you don't have to.

And the people that have pets typically don't.

They just let them get fat and feed them.

And maybe they sleep a little more and, I don't know, pet them.

And there's some Russians that have these amazing Instagram of their marmots.

Oh.

In North America, it is illegal to have wild animals as pets.