{"id":319589,"date":"2025-12-02T02:09:11","date_gmt":"2025-12-02T02:09:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/319589\/"},"modified":"2025-12-02T02:09:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-02T02:09:11","slug":"charity-celebrates-milestone-as-vancouver-island-marmots-rebound-to-427-in-wild","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/319589\/","title":{"rendered":"Charity celebrates milestone as Vancouver Island marmots rebound to 427 in wild"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Text<\/p>\n

Listen to this article<\/p>\n

Estimated 2 minutes<\/p>\n

The audio version of this article is generated by text-to-speech, a technology based on artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n

A foundation trying to save a critically endangered species is celebrating a\u00a0marmot\u00a0milestone.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Marmot\u00a0Recovery Foundation announced on its social media page<\/a> that the population of the Vancouver Island species has reached a new high of 427 marmots.<\/p>\n

When its team first began releasing marmots to the wild in 2003, there were just 22 remaining, and its statement says there was a lot of doubt that the species could be saved.<\/p>\n

It says when the group released the first four of the beaver-like animals into the wild 22 years ago, three of them were eaten by cougars within weeks.<\/p>\n

The foundation says the following year was better with seven marmots released. Two of them were the first to breed in the wild and survived for more than a decade.<\/p>\n

The Vancouver Island\u00a0marmot\u00a0is considered one of Canada’s most endangered species and the rodent has five distinct whistles or trills they use, more than any other species.<\/p>\n

WATCH | Marmots in B.C. are media darlings:\"\"<\/p>\n

Chonky marmot spotted in Kamloops, B.C.<\/p>\n

Taylor Borth tells CBC\u2019s The National about #TheMoment she spotted an unusually large marmot at McArthur Island Park in Kamloops, B.C., and how it quickly gained its own fanbase on social media. <\/p>\n

The group says that while reaching more than 400 Vancouver Island marmots is a milestone, there is still a long way to go for their recovery.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Marmot\u00a0Recovery Foundation was founded in 1998 with the goal of saving the animals from extinction through captive breeding, reintroduction and habitat restoration. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 2 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by text-to-speech, a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":319590,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[49,48,295,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-319589","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-environment","11":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319589","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=319589"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319589\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/319590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=319589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=319589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=319589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}