Fat Marmot Week raises funds for Marmot Project

Colorado is launching Fat Marmot Week to crown the chubbiest yellow-bellied marmot, a local twist on Alaska’s Fat Bear Week that also spotlights a long-running Marmot Project at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory. The event doubles as a fundraising and outreach effort as researchers seek to engage the public in a science-driven conservation narrative amid federal funding challenges. The Marmot Project, now in its 65th year, tracks individually marked marmots and has yielded insights into social behavior and climate impacts in Colorado’s high country. To boost donations, UCLA-led researchers have embraced creative fundraising, including an OnlyFans-derived page called OnlyMarms and a meme coin, highlighting the funding squeeze after public-media defunding and grant cuts. The campaign has gone viral, with sponsors like Denver Beer Co. contributing a portion of proceeds to support marmot research, and the public can vote in bracket-style rounds to determine the Fat Marmot Week champion. Together, the effort blends lighthearted online competition with a serious scientific mission, illustrating how researchers are adapting to funding pressures while continuing long-running ecological studies.