Three days ago I spent 35 minutes photographing most of a large family of Yellow-bellied Marmots. When I first arrived at their den entrance in a pile of rocks there were 6 of them, 5 young pups and a single adult, but as soon as the adult could see I was no threat to the pups it wandered off into the grasses (presumably to feed but I lost track of it). Over the next half hour or so I took almost 900 shots of the pups as they scurried over the rock pile and investigated their new world.
I had more fun than should have been legal.
One of the pups was smaller and grayer in the face than the others and I’m not sure why since I assume marmots are born as a litter at about the same time. Perhaps it was just the runt of the litter.
I managed to catch the pup at bottom in the middle of a yawn which showed off its impressively long chisel-like lower incisors. Their incisors are rootless and grow continually so they must be worn down by gnawing at about the same speed as they grow or the result will be severely overgrown teeth (which is often fatal when it happens in rodents).
For the first few minutes I was with them (and after the adult had left) the pups were a little wary of the presence of my pickup and this one just sat there and watched me for a few moments. But that didn’t last long and soon they were all scurrying about as they checked out the rock pile and each other.
They did a lot of snuggling and cuddling with each other in its various forms. They seemed to enjoy the close presence of their litter-mates so after wandering independently for a while they would usually come back together in groups of 2-3 to regain the apparent comfort and security they were accustomed to after being raised together in their burrow.
I never did get any images of all five siblings together that I liked but here’s three of them.
Whenever they came together again “kissing and snuggling” seemed to be the order of the day.
Some of this behavior was so prevalent and human-like I had to force myself to resist being anthropomorphic about it. They were constantly putting things in their mouths or very nearly so, including twigs, portions of rocks, clumps of dried grasses and even parts of each other. At one point I photographed a pup as it took the snout of a sibling into its mouth. I suspect this behavior is the “oral mouthing stage” that many young mammals go through, including humans.
And when they weren’t mouthing things they were smelling them.
This wasn’t my best shot of the morning but I had to include it because this little guy reminds me of a koala. How about it, EC – agree or disagree?
Despite the wire in the background I wanted to include this photo because I like the walking pose and tail position. And the icing on the cake (not an appetizing analogy I know) was the marmot dropping on the rock. I guess that’s the biologist in me coming out…
I caught this little fella as “he” was scratching below his left ear but I didn’t have enough shutter speed (1/640 sec) to get that blazingly fast scratchin’ foot sharp (apologies for not including all of my image techs but I simply ran out of time). This is one of those cases where I think a little motion blur is both appropriate and acceptable and perhaps even preferred.
I think I did pretty well to get almost to the end of this long post without using the word “cute”, but dammit these guys were cuteness personified. More than most images I take I’m dreading culling 866 photos of these pups down to a manageable number.
Many of them are going to be hard to say goodbye to…
Ron
Definitely cute! We were recently in Australia, where we saw quite a few koalas close up. This marmot does look a lot like them.
You made my day with the pictures real cute
There is NOTHING wrong with using “cute!” It definitely applies! I’m getting puppy flashbacks.
Also, go easy with the delete finger — Oh the “marmonity!” 😉
“Cute” just doesn’t fit very well into my training as a biologist, Marty. I’m trying to get over some of that at this point in my life…
I spent a big chunk of my undergrad cutting up dead humans (and grad school teaching about them). If I can use “cute;” you can use cute. 😉
Oh I use it all right. I just try not to overdo it…
The marmot pups are so cute! Thank you!
Agreed. Thanks, Adele.
What a great series Ron!
Charlotte
Thank you, Charlotte.
Oh my goodness. Too cute. Thanks Ron!
🙂
great pictures Ron…warms the cockles of my heart!!
Thank you, Jerry.
Awwww.
My stony heart melts here so very often.
That youngster is slimmer than any koala (who don’t do svelte at all well) I have seen and MUCH more alert. Koalas are dozy beasts.
A dozy beast is what I’ve been today, EC. This kind of weather will do that to me.
Koalas are dozy whatever the weather. I hope your dozy day has restored you.
You’ve earned a few dozy days, and thensome.
OH THANK YOU thank you for these photos that are more precious than gold!
After days of hearing of eagle shootings in NM and here in Oregon and the
wolf killing going on in Oregon, I so so desperately needed a balm for the spirit
and you delivered it to my inbox this morning. Deepest gratitude, Ron!
I’m glad they brought you some relief from your distress, Karen. Thanks.
They are absolutely adorable to say the least. I took photos of two different adults with not much grey on the face but my sister got some really cute photos of one near the Waneta border crossing. He/she was sitting up on the haunches but I noticed a lot of the grey in the face so is this a “pup”? I hope that is what you call the youngsters? Lovely post Ron, thank you for sharing.
“so is this a “pup””
I don’t know, Shirley. I’d have to know its size and the time of year to hazard a guess. Thank you.
What great and fun pictures. We can be entertained by the smallest cute fur babies. Nice to see them. When I do get a chance to run across them, they are always moving so fast and darting under rocks or just running across the road. Love them and thanks.
Yes, I’ve usually found them to be elusive, Trudy. Which is part of the reason I had so much fun with them.
My eldest kiddo always took tons of pictures of these and the picas…I agree they can resemble Koalas- AND when the fog messes with depth perception and vision I have heard trail mates whisper”There’s a bear up there ahead in the fog…” [nope. Marmot. lol] I will have to get my kiddo to check out your series – It is a great way to while away some time studying their behaviors.Thanks for the share and good luck on the culling…sniff!
I hope your kiddo enjoys the photos, Diane. Thanks.
I noticed that you resisted calling them cute until the last possible second. You must have been bursting with the concept after all those shots. I know my cuteness meter is pegged! Love the entire series…what a pleasant place to begin my day. The winds are howling here such that my three dogs and the one I’m babysitting ALL want upon my lap. This will go on all day and is not particularly cute 😉
Thanks, Laura. It’s been snowing here. Everything’s white except for the streets. We had wind for a while bit it’s calm now.
Winds here actually accomplished their goal of knocking me to the dirt earlier. Good news is I’m up again!
The rock behind the pups in frames 5 and 6 looks like a huge marmot….maybe it’s a marmot sculpture or a petrified giant marmot…???
It took me a minute to spot it but you’re right, Patty.
My new morning ritual, turn on the coffee machine back to bed until done and see what you’ve got for me ‼️ Cute and cuter. Never heard of Marmots. Hard to pick a favorite pic😃Reminds me of a little otter we have at the river.
Happy Days❗️
This creature of habit thinks rituals are a good thing and I like yours, Diana. Thank you.
Marmots rock!!! (every time I’ve seen a marmot, they’ve been on rocks!) what a great way to start the day…. Wonderful series!!!
“every time I’ve seen a marmot, they’ve been on rocks”
Exactly, Patty – which accounts for one of their other common names – “rockchucks”.
A good nsme for this post might have been, “Yellow-bellied Marmot Pups On The Rocks”… 🙂
What fun. They really are cute.
🙂
Little Marmots; photogenic.
Groundhogs under my porch;
not so much…
Holy Smokes, a haiku.
Cute, neat shots, fun 30 minutes, I can just imagine how hard it must of been clicking the shutter as you were trying not to smile or chuckle!
Help me out Ron, what do they naw on to keep their incisors from over-growing? Isn’t their habitat mostly grass, small twigs and shrubs?
Great post!
Dick, they feed on a variety of plants including grasses, fruits, grains and legumes – even the occasional insect. There must be enough roughage in that diet to keep their incisor growth in check.
The most challenging thing about photographing these pups was deciding which one(s) to aim my lens at. Often I’d choose one and then discover that another pup was doing something even more interesting.
chalk it up to a very fun day!!
What a delightful sequence! Each one is my favorite… love the snuggling and the sniffing the rock! Hope you get more playtimes like this, Ron.
Thanks, Alison. I hope so too.
Adorable plus Ron. Outstanding shots – love the yawn. I am not real sure that I was ever aware there was such an animal as a Marmot. Can’t imagine any animal being cutter than those two guys hugging each other. I can imagine that it will be painful to sit there and delete a few hundred of these great photos.
Everett Sanborn
Prescott AZ
Yes, this time culling is going to be unusually painful, Everett. This species is kind of like the western version of the woodchuck.
Question, would you ever use a full frame camera to take these pictures? The 7D as mention I have the older model and will be changing to the newer model, but I have a full frame 6D, and just wanted your thoughts on this.
In this case I could because I was plenty close to these marmots, Steve.
You left me giggling out loud this morning which reminded me that it is time to tell you again how much I enjoy your blog and photos.
Giggles are good, Linda! Thanks for that feedback.
Ohhhhhhhhhh! SO cute! 🙂 🙂 🙂 I envy you the fun of watching them but NOT the culling! Young of any species are SO fun to watch…..;) After being snuggled up all their short lives I imagine spreading out is a bit intimidating.
Yes, intimidating and disconcerting for them I’m sure, Judy. But also exciting as they seemed to be enjoying themselves.