A new Washington State law, signed by Governor Christine Gregoire on May 12, 2009, states: "The Olympic Marmot is designated as the official state endemic mammal." The new legislation was promoted and developed by students at Seattle's Wedgwood Elementary School, working with Burke Curator of Mammals, Jim Kenagy, and Senator Ken Jacobsen, who introduced the bill.
Our state's new endemic mammal is a noteworthy faunal heritage. The Olympic Marmot, Marmota olympus, is a species found nowhere else in the world except the alpine zone of the Olympic Mountains of Washington, where less than 2000 individuals live under protection of the Olympic National Park. Biogeographers use the term "endemic" to distinguish a species that has a geographic distribution limited to a particular area. The species and its earlier ancestors originally ranged over a much larger area, but became restricted to the Olympics following retreat of recent glaciations and the reduction of habitat to the island-like alpine zone of the Olympic Peninsula. This represents a natural historical change of habitat and species range in response to natural climate change. This process also may have been responsible for the geographic isolation and evolution of this species in the first place. The closest living relative of the Olympic Marmot is now the Vancouver Island Marmot, another isolated species that is endemic to the Canadian island that lies to the north of the Olympic Peninsula. Washington also has two other marmot species: the Hoary Marmot living in the Cascades (also a close relative of the Olympic Marmot) and the Yellow-bellied Marmot living further out in eastern Washington. But both of these other species are also found elsewhere in western North America, so they are not "endemic" to Washington.
Fewer Olympic Marmots are alive today than 100 years ago, when observations were reported throughout the Olympic Mountains. They live in colonies, and as many as 25 colony sites were occupied in the earlier part of the 20th century. From surveys made over the past seven years, the National Park's marmot population of less than 2000 individuals is found at only 10 of the original 25 colony sites.
Across Europe, from the Alps, through the Himalayas and Siberia, to Alaska, and down into northern North America, the Earth contains 14 species of marmots, which are giant squirrels. They all hibernate, typically for about eight months out of the year. Marmots are herbivores, foraging on herbs and grasses in alpine meadows. The oldest known marmot fossils, from North America, date back to 17 million years. Those are recorded from Nebraska, where no marmots live today due to historic shifts of habitat that have occurred in the mean time because of natural climate change.
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