{"id":320025,"date":"2025-12-02T07:06:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-02T07:06:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/320025\/"},"modified":"2025-12-02T07:06:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-02T07:06:07","slug":"endangered-species-population-on-the-rise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/320025\/","title":{"rendered":"Endangered\u00a0species population on the rise"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>When conservationists tracking the endangered Vancouver Island marmot checked their wildlife cameras this fall, they did double, and even triple takes at the numbers they were seeing.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is a lot more marmots, and that\u2019s certainly a magical moment,\u201d said Adam Taylor, executive director of the Marmot Recovery Foundation.<\/p>\n<p>According to the Marmot Recovery Foundation, a record 427 of the small mammals were counted in Fall 2025, ahead of their entering hibernation in mid-November. <\/p>\n<p>That population is a major milestone for recovery efforts, since just 22 Vancouver Island marmots were left in the wild in 2003. The species was brought back from the brink of extinction with the concentrated efforts of the Marmot Recovery Foundation breeding and introducing Vancouver Island marmots back to the wild.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s just an incredible turnaround from where we started. This is more marmots than we have ever counted before,\u201d said Taylor.<\/p>\n<p>Watch the story below:<\/p>\n<p>The foundation\u2019s work is a true grass roots effort, with the conservation and breeding program on Mount Washington and supplemental food for the marmots, entirely\u00a0funded by community donations.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis species would be extinct. There\u2019s just no question,\u201d said Taylor.<\/p>\n<p>According to Taylor, <a href=\"https:\/\/cheknews.ca\/record-number-of-endangered-vancouver-island-marmots-pups-spotted-in-2024-1239118\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">in 2024, researchers recorded 381 marmots<\/a>. Taylor said females typically breed every two years, so researchers didn\u2019t expect to see an increase in marmots in 2025. Yet the female marmots surprised them.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe had a lot of pups in 2024. Thought this would be a down year. We are thrilled that the marmots proved us wrong. They had over 100 pups again this year,\u00a0and the population increased by another 46 marmots,\u201d said Taylor.<\/p>\n<p>According to the Marmot Recovery Foundation, the species isn\u2019t healthy enough yet to stop recovery efforts. Yet this baby boom is growing confidence that the uniquely Vancouver Island mammal is returning to the wild for good.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When conservationists tracking the endangered Vancouver Island marmot checked their wildlife cameras this fall, they did double, and&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":320026,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[49,48,55749,142179,142180,142181,142182,142183,66,36245,142184,1062,323],"class_list":["post-320025","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-critically-endangered-species","tag-marmot-recovery-foundation","tag-mount-washington","tag-nearly-extinct-animal","tag-recovery-effort","tag-saved-from-brink-of-extinction","tag-science","tag-vancouver-island","tag-vancouver-island-marmot","tag-video","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320025","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=320025"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320025\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/320026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=320025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=320025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=320025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}