Your support has made this remarkable recovery possible. Your gifts fund this work, and your donations have literally saved the Vancouver Island marmot from the brink of extinction.

Together, we are saving a species. One animal at a time.
marmots.org/this-giving-...

While reaching over 400 wild Vancouver Island marmots is a milestone, there is still a long way to go before the species is safe. But we know now we can do it, and that the work we do, like conservation breeding and translocations, helps the wild marmot population grow.

The following year, we released seven more marmots. Two of those were Haida and Onslo, a pair that would go to be the first released marmots to breed in the wild, and both survived for more than 10 years!

Those first marmots we released? Three of four were eaten by a cougar within weeks, and we recaught the fourth to make sure it did not suffer the same fate. It was upsetting and discouraging, but we persevered.

But with the support of people from across the country, we were able to begin the next stage of an ambitious recovery effort. In 2003, we released the first four Vancouver Island marmots from the conservation breeding program back to the wild.

The journey from 22 to over 400 has not been easy, for the marmots or us.

Just 427 marmots may not seem like a large population, and it is not. But when we started releasing marmots to the wild, we could only find 22 wild Vancouver Island marmots left. That was in 2003, and there was a lot of doubt at that time that the species could be saved from extinction.

Here you go! This one is from a few years ago, but the bear was very accommodating in providing an excellent view of itself.

These cameras receive a lot of abuse - snow, wind, rain, marmots and bears biting them. Everything the alpine can throw at them for 6 months of the year. We're happy if the camera still works, even if the the microphone get damaged!

I love it!

We aren’t doing this alone. Our work is possible because of people like you donate, and our partners, like Mount Washington Alpine Resort, Mosaic Forest Management, the Wilder Institute, and the Toronto Zoo. Thank you for being a part of this remarkable success story.

Our mission is to save the Vancouver Island marmot. Huge progress has been made in the past 20 years. The population has increased more than 10 fold, they have expanded from just 5 colonies to over 30. But there is much to be done before the species is secure.

Given the weather forecast on Vancouver Island this evening, dressing up as a Vancouver Island marmot with its super thick fur coat sounds like a pretty good option!

What?!? That's fantastic! I've never heard of Marmot doing something like that!

Hopefully our work this fall will mean more wildflowers and better lookout spots for the marmots next spring! A huge thank you to the Patricia and Gordon Grey Animal Welfare Foundation and everyone who supports our work for making this restoration possible!