Wednesday, February 20, 2013

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."




Sunday, February 10, 2013

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!

Saturday, February 2, 2013

In Alaska it's Marmot Day

Did you know that Alaska doesn't celebrate Groundhog Day, but they have an official state holiday called Marmot Day.  You can read about the history of the State Bill here.  Happy Marmot Day!

Happy Groundhog Day

Happy Groundhog Day to all!

Seems it's cloudy all over (including LA!) and early spring is predicted!

Meanwhile, the LA Times visited our annual lab groundhog day party yesterday and wrote a feature article!

Friday, January 4, 2013

Welcome Irene Figueroa


We have a new lab visitor for the next two months.  Irene Figueroa is a PhD student from the CREAF laboratory (www.creaf.uab.cat) in Barcelona, Catalonia, under the supervision of Dr. Bernat Claramunt Lopez. She has been studying an introduced population of alpine marmot in the Pyrenees since 2008. Her main scientific interest is centered on the ecological and behavioural flexibility of introduces species, using the alpine marmot as a biological model. Thus, part of her research is focused on the comparison between the introduced population of the Pyrenees and the native of the Alps, and she is also studying the learning process of the offspring alarm calls and the behaviour of marmots using a spatially explicit approach.

Welcome Irene!


A photo of their alpine study site.



Friday, December 21, 2012

Dan's TED-X UCLA talk now posted

In October Dan gave a TED-X UCLA talk on the sound of fear that takes viewers on a marmot-inspired discussion of why certain sounds are fear inducing. The talk has just been posted to the TED-X site.