Tyrion at Flower Ridge

One of our winter tasks is to review footage captured by our wildlife cameras. While doing so, we came across a batch of 190 videos made by Tyrion at Flower Ridge. Tyrion’s story is wonderful - perfect for a dark December night.
As you might recall, the winter of 2015-16 was dark indeed for marmots. Many marmots, especially in Strathcona Park, didn’t survive until the spring. Among the colonies hardest hit was Flower Ridge. In the early spring of 2016, we worried that the colony may have been wiped out.
Meanwhile, we also believed Tyrion had died. He was released to the Henshaw colony in the summer of 2015, but he quickly disappeared, and we feared the worst. So we were surprised during those early 2016 surveys to pick up Tyrion’s signal, indicated that he was alive and active! Only not at Henshaw, but some 7 km away at Flower Ridge. Upon investigating at Flower Ridge, we had another wonderful surprise - signs of other marmots! There were two emergence holes - a sure sign that multiple marmots had made it through the winter.
This year, Tyrion and an unknown female have been very active at Flower Ridge. They’ve left us lots of evidence by digging and padding their burrows as well as wrestling and playing, kindly doing all this in clear view of cameras. We were able to follow Tyrion to hibernation, with his mystery partner, still on Flower Ridge. Next spring, we’re hoping for a litter of pups, and whistles of more marmots in the meadow.”
Vancouver Island Marmot Recovery - please visit marmots.org for more information.
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Thank you for your interest!