In April, the scientists walk to their field station in Gothic, Colorado. Usually they go on skis. This year there was no snow. They walked on bare ground all the way. Dan Blumstein leads the marmot study. He started in 2001. He wrote that this spring was new and strange for him.
A marmot is a big animal like a very large squirrel. It sleeps under the ground all winter. Snow keeps the ground warm. With no snow, the marmots got cold. They used all their body fat.
In autumn there were about 160 marmots. In spring only about 60 came out. About 100 marmots died in the winter. There were also very few flowers, and marmots eat flowers.
Emily Renkey is a student in the project. She said it was very sad. She said there was no snow, so the marmots used more body fat to stay warm.
The project also lost its money from the government in 2025.
So Blumstein had an idea one slow morning. He watched a TV show about a woman with money problems. She made money on the internet. Blumstein thought: marmots have money problems too. In June the project opened an internet page with marmot photos. They call it OnlyMarms. The photos show marmots playing and digging.
Then people on the internet made a new digital money for the marmots. The project got more than $140,000. Renkey said she did not believe it at first. She said these people were not the people they expected, but she is very grateful.
In August the team had a Fat Marmot Week with eight marmots. A male marmot called Dawn won. In June he weighed about 8.6 pounds. On August 15 he weighed about 13 pounds.
Renkey laughed and said the marmots do not know they are famous.