29 SEPTEMBER 2026 (Calgary, AB) – Near the summit of a Vancouver Island mountain, a talus field stretched out under a grey sky — jumbled rock, patches of alpine grass, silence. Two Wilder Institute field technicians were scanning the slope for movement. No marmot had been recorded here in years. Then came the whistle.
Not just one marmot, but seven: two adults and five pups, marking the discovery of a previously undocumented colony.
The discovery was unexpected, and an encouraging sign for one of Canada’s rarest mammals, which numbered only about 30 individuals in the wild in 2003.
Knowing where to look
The site was chosen through a Wilder Institute project launched in 2026 to better understand the amount of suitable marmot habitat across Vancouver Island. The work is helping identify where field crews should search for marmots and where conservation-bred marmots could potentially be released.
“Thanks to decades of recovery work, we have a reasonable understanding of what marmots need: soil for burrows, rocky terrain to escape predators, plants to forage, and slopes kept open by avalanche cycles,” said Dr. Brenna Stanford, Conservation Program Manager for the Vancouver Island Marmot Program at the Wilder Institute. “But there are clearly things the marmots know that we don’t. They turn up in places we wouldn’t expect, and they leave places that look ideal to us.”
To narrow the search across the island’s rugged terrain, the Wilder Institute is building models to predict where suitable marmot habitat is most likely to occur. The models are created using remotely sensed data layers, including topography, vegetation, and climate data such as average temperature and precipitation. Field technicians then collect data on the ground to test and improve those predictions.
Learning from the marmots
This mountain showed why both field surveys and predictive modeling are needed. The field crew found evidence of marmots in areas the latest model had ranked highly, but the specific slope where they found this colony wasn’t flagged by the model.
“This is genuinely one of the most useful things that can happen. The models show us where to look, and the marmots show us what the models are missing. Every time they surprise us, we learn something we can use to better predict the location of suitable habitat,” said Kelly Swan, Conservation Research Associate at the Wilder Institute, who leads the habitat modelling and field data collection.
A familiar mountain
The discovery also raises questions about the mountain’s history. Aiming to reverse the decline of the wild population, a conservation-breeding program was established in the mid-90s that now involves the Wilder Institute, Toronto Zoo, and Marmot Recovery Foundation. In 2008, marmots born in the program were released on this peak by the Marmot Recovery Foundation, although none of those individuals survived to establish a colony there. However, the mountain is also located between several occupied marmot sites. This raises the possibility that the newly discovered marmots could be descendants of marmots released to these neighboring mountains. Further research would be needed to determine their origins.
“It is a great sign that recovery efforts are working when the wild population expands to a new colony, and it is a thrill to see the marmots reclaim one of their historic homes like this,” said Adam Taylor, Executive Director of the Marmot Recovery Foundation, the organization responsible for releasing conservation-bred marmots and leading in-the-field recovery efforts. “Even though our initial reintroduction was not successful, those marmots may have paved the way for these marmots to succeed today by recreating marmot habitat like burrows and escape terrain.”
Building a stronger population
Vancouver Island marmots live in a network of colonies known as a metapopulation. Maintaining connected colonies is important to the species’ recovery because a loss or decline in one colony can be buffered by individuals arriving from elsewhere. It is believed that habitat alteration led to the disruption of that structure, and the isolation it caused was a major driver of the species’ decline.
Discoveries like this help researchers understand where marmots can survive, how colonies are connected, and what conditions are needed to support their recovery. The ultimate goal is a self-sustaining population of Vancouver Island marmots that no longer requires human intervention to survive.
– 30 –
For more information contact:
Cindy Antonello
Senior Manager, Communications 403.232.7766 | 403.919.9482 | mediarelations@wilderinstitute.org
About the Wilder Institute
The Wilder Institute is a global conservation charity working to create a future where people and wildlife thrive, together. We operate the Calgary Zoo, one of Canada’s most visited zoological institutions, and bring together conservation action, animal wellbeing, species recovery, research and public engagement within one connected organization focused on wildlife conservation.
From the Wilder Institute’s Calgary Zoo to the Archibald Biodiversity Centre, Canada’s largest conservation breeding facility, and applied conservation programs in Canada and around the world—including conservation work in regions such as Ghana and initiatives such as the Centre for Species Survival (CSS) Human Dimensions and the Wilder Canada Action Plan—every part of our work contributes to a shared purpose: we act for wildlife; saving species and inspiring people to join us.
We work in partnership with Indigenous Peoples, communities, governments, researchers and other conservation organizations to restore wildlife populations and ecosystems, share knowledge and
capacity with people across society to grow our conservation family, and scale solutions that support biodiversity across our country and others. By connecting animal care, applied conservation, and public engagement, we help turn knowledge into action and action into lasting impact for wildlife, ecosystems, and the communities connected to them. Learn more at WilderInstitute.org and CalgaryZoo.com.