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| access-date = 2016-01-16 }}</ref> As of the fall of 2021, there were approximately 25 colonies with marmots likely to emerge.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Current Status – The Vancouver Island Marmot Recovery Foundation |url=https://marmots.org/about-marmots/current-status-2/ |access-date=2023-09-22 |language=en-US}}</ref> These are spread between 2 metapopulations (clusters of colonies that marmots could travel between), and one isolated colony at Steamboat Mountain.<ref name=":2" />
== Description ==
[[File:Marmota vancouverensis skull at the Beaty Biodiversity Museum.JPG|thumb|Vancouver Island marmot skull]]
The Vancouver Island marmot is typical of alpine-dwelling marmots in general form and physiology. However this species can be easily distinguished from other [[marmot]]s by its rich, chocolate brown fur and contrasting white patches.<ref name=":2" /> No other marmot species naturally occurs on Vancouver Island.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Nagorsen, D.W|date= 1987|title=''Marmota vancouverensis''|journal= Mammalian Species |issue= 270|pages= 1–5| doi = 10.2307/3503862|jstor= 3503862}}</ref> The Vancouver Island marmot, as its name suggests, is geographically restricted to Vancouver Island, and apparently evolved rapidly since retreat of the Cordilleran glaciation some 10,000 years before present.<ref>{{cite journal|author1=Nagorsen, D.W. |author2=A. Cardini |name-list-style=amp |date= 2009|title= Tempo and mode of evolutionary divergence in modern and Holocene Vancouver Island marmots (''Marmota vancouverensis'')|journal= Journal of Zoological Systematics and Evolutionary Research |volume= 47|issue= 3|pages= 258| doi = 10.1111/j.1439-0469.2008.00503.x |doi-access= free}}</ref> ''Marmota vancouverensis'' is distinct from other marmot species in terms of morphology,<ref>{{cite journal|author=Cardini, A.|author2=Thorington, R.W. Jr|author3=Polly, P.D|name-list-style=amp|date= 2007|title= Evolutionary acceleration in the most endangered mammal of Canada: speciation and divergence in the Vancouver Island marmot (Rodentia, Sciuridae)|journal= Journal of Evolutionary Biology |volume= 20|issue= 5|pages= 1833–46| doi = 10.1111/j.1420-9101.2007.01398.x|pmid= 17714301|s2cid=13288283|doi-access= free}}</ref> genetics,<ref>{{cite journal|author=Kruckenhauser, L.|author2=W. Pinsker|author3=E. Haring|author4=W. Arnold|name-list-style=amp|date= 1999|title= Marmot phylogeny revisited: molecular evidence for a diphyletic origin of sociality|journal= Journal of Zoological Systematics and Evolutionary Research|volume= 37|pages= 49–56| doi = 10.1046/j.1439-0469.1999.95100.x }}</ref> behaviour,<ref>{{cite journal|author=Blumstein D.T.|date= 1999|title= Alarm calling in three species of marmots|journal= Behaviour |volume= 136|issue= 6|pages= 731–757| doi = 10.1163/156853999501540}}</ref> and ecology.<ref>{{cite thesis|author=Bryant, A.A. |date=1998|title= Metapopulation ecology of Vancouver Island marmots (''Marmota vancouverensis'')|type=PhD dissertation|publisher= University of Victoria (Victoria, BC)| url = https://andrewabryantservices.files.wordpress.com/2016/02/bryant_1998_phd.pdf}}</ref>
An adult Vancouver Island marmot typically measures 65 to 70 centimetres from the tip of its nose to the tip of its tail. However, weights show tremendous seasonal variation. An adult female that weighs 3 kilograms when she emerges from hibernation in late April can weigh 4.5 to 5.5 kg by the onset of hibernation in late September or October. Adult males can be even larger, reaching weights of over 7.5 kg. In general, marmots lose about one-third of their body mass during the six-and-a-half months in which they hibernate during winter.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Animal Profile – The Vancouver Island Marmot Recovery Foundation |url=https://marmots.org/about-marmots/animal-profile/ |access-date=2022-09-24 |language=en-US}}</ref>
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