The last member of the early season team Marmot!

My name is Line Cordes and I was the last member of team Marmot to arrive in late April. I am from Denmark, but have lived elsewhere for the last 12 years pursuing a career in population ecology. I completed my MSc and PhD at University of Aberdeen, Scotland developing and running an individual-based study of harbour seals, studying their demography and pupping phenology. During the completion of my PhD I took on a postdoc where I, as part of a team, investigated the impacts of seismic surveys on cetaceans. Most recently, I have moved to Fort Collins, CO with my husband who was offered a postdoc at CSU, and I have been working as a visiting scientist either volunteering or taking on contracts both within and outside of CSU to analyse data within the field of population ecology. I arrived at RMBL just in time for the emergence of the first marmots. This meant that it was a speedy introduction to identifying individuals as well as observing and documenting their social behaviour. I was assigned one particular colony called Avalanche for the first three days and enjoyed the challenge of trying to keep track of eight playful yearlings running rings around an adult male. Gothic is truly a stunning place to live and work, and what a pleasure to have it to ourselves for a few weeks before it officially opens.

Groundhogs in the news!

Groundhog terrorizes a little league team:  http://now.msn.com/groundhog-terrorizes-bridgeton-little-league

Clobert report features groundhogs in a conspiracy theory argument (it's the second segment!):  http://www.colbertnation.com/full-episodes/mon-may-6-2013-robert-caro

Our crew is now in the field.  Of course, now the snow really starts...

Nicole saw a marmot at Stonefield the other day and Timothee writes:
"It's my first year at RMBL as a research assistant and I'm already fond of the place ! We got there last week, and despite the recurrent snow we were able to spot some marmots (shame on me, I've confounded a ground squirrel with a yearling here...) but also to see a pair of coyotes.

We're now waiting for the snow melt and the emergence of our cute rodents. But when... Place your bets !"

Some of his nice photos are below.

OK, Phil's in trouble.

Turns out that you just can't go around predictin' or prognosticatin' about the weather without consequences in our litigious society and the State of Ohio is filing felony charges against our favorite celebrity rodent!

Sad state of affairs!

Congratulations to Julien!

Dr. Julien Martin has just started his new job as a Marie Curie Fellow and a Lecturer at the Institute of Biological and Environmental Sciences at the University of Aberdeen, in Scotland.   Join me in congratulating Julien!

Welcome Timothee Fouqueray

Timothee has recently joined us for a two month stay.

He writes:

"After a two-year intensive course in Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Geology and Humanities, I've been accepted in my current school, the Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon (France), which fortunately really cares of its students! As a graduate student, my studies go from theoretical works to concrete projects, such as the one I'm beginning in my UCLA internship. During the 5 months of my stay here, I'll try to understand the maternal effects on the anogenital distance (a proxy of masculinization and early exposure to testosterone) of yellow-bellied marmots, that is to say how much of an individual anogenital distance is explained by the breeding value of its mother. And I'll have the chance to go in the field, in RMBL, to observe my new favourite rodents until the end of June !

If you want one, there's in attached file a picture of my school."

Did you know...

...that according to a NY Times article, baristas in Sterling Coffee Roasters in Portland, Oregon, shout out "Marmot!" when an attractive customer is in line.  It seems the baristas stand at attention like marmots following the cry!