Marmot Recovery Foundation

Marmot Recovery Foundation The Vancouver Island Marmot is Canada's most endangered mammal. Help us bring it back from the brink of extinction!

Our mission is to bring the Vancouver Island Marmot back from the brink of extinction. The Foundation leads on the ground efforts to recover this unique and endangered species on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada.

Update: Our walkabout marmot has been caught! He is on his way now to the Marmot Recovery Centre. Our hope is to release...
05/26/2026

Update: Our walkabout marmot has been caught! He is on his way now to the Marmot Recovery Centre. Our hope is to release him to other Vancouver Island marmots this summer. Many thanks to everyone who helped!

While walkabouts of this length are rare for Vancouver Island marmots, they have happened before, and when released to other wild marmots, they have done very well! Most recently, Camas was found in a farm field in 2023, and he is a proud marmot dad in the mountains of Strathcona Park.

Photo Kevin Gourlay

Update: Our walkabout marmot has been caught! He is on his way now to the Marmot Recovery Centre. Our hope is to release...
05/24/2026

Update: Our walkabout marmot has been caught! He is on his way now to the Marmot Recovery Centre. Our hope is to release him to other Vancouver Island marmots this summer. Many thanks to everyone who helped!

While walkabouts of this length are rare for Vancouver Island marmots, they have happened before, and when released to other wild marmots, they have done very well! Most recently, Camas was found in a farm field in 2023, and he is a proud marmot dad in the mountains of Strathcona Park.

Original Post:
Campbell River folks: Have you seen this marmot? Last spotted near the Old Island Highway in the Shelter Point area. If you see it, please email or use the report a marmot form at https://marmots.org/observer-program/

This is a wild born, untagged Vancouver Island marmot, initially reported to us several days. We were able to locate it, but not successfully trap it. Yesterday, we were unable to locate it again.

We would very much like to get this marmot back to appropriate habitat (after a thorough health assessment). It is likely a 2 year that dispersed from its natal colony, and took a wrong turn somewhere.

Photo Suzan L.

This is an exceptionally rare look at newborn Vancouver Island marmots, captured with a remote nest camera yesterday at ...
05/20/2026

This is an exceptionally rare look at newborn Vancouver Island marmots, captured with a remote nest camera yesterday at the Tony Barrett Mount Washington Marmot Recovery Centre.

Vancouver Island marmots give birth in their burrow. The newborn pups, tiny and hairless, are helpless. The mother will often exclude the father and any other family members from the burrow until the pups have grown.

For the next month the pups are kept underground, living off nursing from mom. Even in the breeding centre, we don’t see the pups until they start to emerge. By that time, they have grown fur and are considerably larger.

This mom is Anna2. Her pups will stay with her until next summer, when if all goes well, they will be released to the wild.

05/11/2026

Vancouver Island marmots are coming out of hibernation, and they are hungry. Today was the first day of feeder installs. These feeders have "biscuits" made of pressed, dried leaves - a good nutritional match for marmots. This is especially important for potential marmot moms, who have to support pregnancy and breastfeeding right after hibernation, when their body condition is at its lowest.

05/10/2026

Happy Mother's day to all our Vancouver Island marmot moms. Their strength, resiliency, and adaptability is incredible and makes the recovery of their species possible.

Right now, immediately following hibernation when their body condition is at its lowest, marmots are breeding and getting pregnant. They will gestate for one month, and then breast feeding a litter of 2 to 6 pups for another month. During that time, they will not be able to gain body weight, leaving them just 3 months to get ready for their next hibernation.

It is a remarkable feat, and we are grateful for these fantastic parents!

First wild Vancouver Island marmot of the year spotted this morning! Joey and Mayzie were hanging out together foraging....
05/07/2026

First wild Vancouver Island marmot of the year spotted this morning! Joey and Mayzie were hanging out together foraging. We detected marmots above ground with telemetry in April, but this is the first day we've had eyes on them!

Photos by Heather Heim and Adam Taylor

Vancouver Island marmots are starting to wake up, but when you’ve been in hibernation for 7 months, waking up is a proce...
04/14/2026

Vancouver Island marmots are starting to wake up, but when you’ve been in hibernation for 7 months, waking up is a process and hitting the snooze button a few times is part of it.

As spring approaches, marmot body temperatures start to cycle up into an active state and then down into a hibernation state more frequently. Within the next few weeks, the first marmots will stay active and dig their way out of the burrow. We expect most of the marmots to emerge during May.

Yes, there have been marmots who dug out, looked around, apparently decided “yeah, not yet”, and went back down and into hibernation for a couple more weeks!

All photos by Ryan Tidman.

Here's a little more Gob, because he is handsome marmot who just wanted to hang out with his buddies at the Marmot Recov...
04/07/2026

Here's a little more Gob, because he is handsome marmot who just wanted to hang out with his buddies at the Marmot Recovery Centre from which he had been released a few short months earlier.

Yes, "Gob" was named after the Will Arnett "Arrested Development" character by staff at the The Toronto Zoo. None of us knew just how apt the name would prove to be!

Gob is in good health, and we are looking forward to giving him another chance live in the wild.

Photos by Adam Taylor.

Meet Gob. Gob was born at The Toronto Zoo in 2024, and traveled across Canada to spend his first winter at the Tony Barr...
03/23/2026

Meet Gob. Gob was born at The Toronto Zoo in 2024, and traveled across Canada to spend his first winter at the Tony Barrett Mount Washington Marmot Centre. We released him nearby to Mount Washington Alpine Resort last June.

Maybe too nearby. Several months after his release, Gob found his way back to the Marmot Recovery Centre where he hung out on the other side of the mesh from his old friends. As winter approached, we decided to bring Gob back inside the Centre, rather than have him hibernate underneath the Centre!

It will be a short stay however. Gob was in great shape in the fall; surviving wasn’t a problem for him! He has been paired up with a new release cohort, and as they emerge from hibernation together they will have a couple months to get to know one another.

This time Gob and new friends will be released further away!

Photos by Adam Taylor

A young, hungry Vancouver Island marmot nibbles on a biscuit as the snow falls. The marmots still have another month or ...
03/04/2026

A young, hungry Vancouver Island marmot nibbles on a biscuit as the snow falls. The marmots still have another month or more of hibernation, but when they do wake up, they will be hungry. Hibernation sounds pleasant, but it is terribly demanding on a marmot’s body.

During hibernation, the marmots spend 6 to 7 months underground living entirely on stored body reserves. By the time they emerge, they have lost 30 to 50 percent of their body mass.

Wake up time is also breeding time for marmots. This is especially demanding for females who have to support a pregnancy and breastfeeding pups before they have recovered from hibernation. Females often skip a year of reproduction to regain enough body condition to support another litter.

Our supplemental feeding is especially targeted to these females in hopes that the easily available extra nutrition gives them the boost they need to support a litter. However, we see that young marmots also enjoy the biscuits!

Photos by Ryan Tidman.

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Nanaimo, BC

Opening Hours

Monday 9am - 4pm
Tuesday 9am - 4pm
Wednesday 9am - 4pm
Thursday 9am - 4pm
Friday 9am - 4pm

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1-250-390-0006

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