In April, the scientists of the Marmot Project usually ski to their field station in Gothic, Colorado. This year there was no snow. They walked on bare ground all the way. Dan Blumstein has led the study since 2001. He wrote that this season was not like any season he had seen before.
The marmots had a very bad winter. In the autumn there were about 160 animals. In the spring only about 60 came out of the ground. Snow works like a warm blanket over a marmot’s home under the ground. Without snow, the animals get cold and use too much body fat. About 100 marmots in the study died. There were also very few flowers, and marmots eat flowers. Emily Renkey, a student in the project, told The Denver Post that it was “super sad”.
Scientists have studied these marmots since 1962. It is one of the longest animal studies in the world. But in 2025 the project lost its money from the government.
So the team had a strange idea. Blumstein said he waits a lot for marmots to do things, and he got the idea on a slow morning. One student said they must do it. In June they opened an OnlyFans page for the marmots and called it OnlyMarms. The photos show marmots playing, digging and carrying plants home. People can follow for free, but the team asks for money. By August the page had made about $4,000.
Then something bigger happened. People on the internet made a new kind of digital money about OnlyMarms. Renkey did not believe it was real at first. But it brought the project more than $140,000. She said it was not the community they expected, but they are very grateful.
In August the team also ran Fat Marmot Week with eight adult marmots. The winner was a male called Dawn. In June he weighed about 8.6 pounds. On August 15 he weighed about 13 pounds. He won two titles.
Renkey laughed and said, “The marmots don’t know how famous they are”.