Vancouver Island Marmots - No rock too big

Vancouver Island Marmot Recovery - please visit marmots.org for more information.
Ground squirrels like the Vancouver Island marmot can be described as having a "semi-fossorial" lifestyle. That is just a fancy way to say that they live part of their life underground. Marmots must come above ground to feed, and they consume many different kinds of plants, including lupines, phlox, paintbrush, lilies, and other forbs, sedges and grasses. During winter, though, marmots remain in their burrows to hibernate, and in summer, they use their burrows to hide from predators and poor weather. And because Vancouver Island marmots are the only large, burrowing mammal that lives in their subalpine and alpine habitat, there is just no way around it - they have to do all this digging by themselves!
When we first watched this video, we had to wonder what on earth this marmot was doing - and we imagine you might wonder the same thing. But if you watch the video to the end, you will see why it was worth all that work. You'll also see the marmot take a few breaks during this process to rubs its cheeks on a rock above the burrow, and then on some smaller rocks below the burrow. Marmots have scent glands in their cheeks, and this "cheek-marking" is its way of claiming this burrow as its own.
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