Marmot Life History, Behavior, and Population Ecology
Explores how yellow-bellied marmots and other small mammals navigate survival, social behavior, and life-history tradeoffs across decades of longitudinal field research in alpine Colorado.
Knowledge Graph (249 nodes, 3653 connections)
Research Primer
Background
Marmots, golden-mantled ground squirrels, and other ground-dwelling members of the squirrel family (Sciuridae) are signature mammals of the Gunnison Basin's subalpine meadows. Because they live in a short growing season sandwiched between long, snowy winters, these animals must compress reproduction, growth, and fat accumulation into just a few months before retreating to their burrows to hibernate. That tight schedule makes them sensitive indicators of how mountain ecosystems respond to climate variability, predators, and human activity around the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory (RMBL). Decades of individually marked animals at sites like Marmot Meadow and the Gothic townsite have made RMBL one of the world's premier laboratories for understanding mammalian life histories in a changing world.
A few key ideas recur throughout this research. Life history refers to the schedule of birth, growth, reproduction, and death, and species are often arrayed along a slow-fast continuum, with slow-lived species (like marmots) reproducing later and surviving longer than fast-lived ones. The vital rates that build that schedule (survival probabilities, reproductive rates) are tracked through mark-recapture studies, in which researchers ear-tag animals and follow them across years. Populations are also shaped by density dependence (crowding effects on survival and reproduction) and by environmental stochasticity (year-to-year randomness in weather and snowpack). Hibernation is the central life-history adaptation that lets marmots and ground squirrels persist in this environment, but it also constrains when young must be born and how much mass they must gain before winter.
Behavior matters too. Animals must balance foraging against vigilance behavior, the act of scanning for predators, and they communicate threats through alarm communication, such as the whistles marmots give when a coyote or eagle appears. Researchers measure antipredator behavior with flight initiation distance (how close a human or predator can approach before the animal flees) and with acoustic playback experiments that broadcast recorded predator sounds. Animals also vary in personality traits like boldness, and they differ in dispersal (whether young leave their birthplace) versus philopatry (whether they stay). Increasingly, scientists use social network analysis to map who interacts with whom, asking how an individual's social phenotype shapes its survival and reproductive success. Finally, anthropogenic disturbance from hikers, vehicles, and tourists is a growing concern in the Gunnison Basin, with effects ranging from habituation to roadkill.
Foundational work
The modern study of these animals at RMBL was built on Kenneth Armitage's forty-year program on yellow-bellied marmots, synthesized in his monograph Marmot Biology (Armitage, 2014). That work established the marmot social system as matrilineal and facultatively social, linked body size and habitat use to environmental physiology, and tied marmot population regulation to inclusive fitness and kinship. Parallel foundational studies on alarm communication showed that marmots produce a small set of acoustically distinct calls (whistles, trills, and chucks), with whistles dominating the alarm repertoire (Blumstein, 1991), and that reproductive females with vulnerable pups call at higher rates than other classes (Blumstein, 1991).
A second foundational thread came from comparative life-history theory. Cross-species analyses demonstrated that senescence is widespread in wild vertebrates and that mammals senesce faster than similarly sized birds because they sit at a faster point on the slow-fast continuum (Jones et al., 2008), and that longer-lived species are buffered against environmental variability while shorter-lived species are more vulnerable to it (Morris et al., 2008). Early acoustic playback experiments at RMBL also established that marmots can distinguish predator categories by sound, suppressing foraging and increasing vigilance after alarm calls and showing graded responses to coyote, wolf, and eagle vocalizations (Blumstein et al., 2004).
Key findings
Long-term mark-recapture has revealed that these populations are anything but steady. Stochastic modeling of the golden-mantled ground squirrel population at RMBL showed an average growth rate of 0.94 but extreme year-to-year swings (from 0.45 in 2006 to 1.50 in 2003), with growth below replacement in half of all years studied (Kneip et al., 2012). A four-year demographic bottleneck collapsed the population from about 100 adults to just 7, and allelic richness dropped accordingly, illustrating how quickly genetic diversity can erode in small subalpine populations (Aliperti et al., 2011). Adult females consistently show the highest survival and juvenile males the lowest, and population density depresses survival with a one-year lag (Hostetler et al., 2011). Maternal survival itself carries social costs: a higher density of related breeding females raises a mother's mortality hazard, while later snow cover and shorter growing seasons paradoxically reduce it (Kanaziz et al., 2022).
Behavior, dispersal, and habitat selection are tightly linked to these demographic patterns. Ground squirrels strongly prefer dry-meadow habitat with short vegetation and abundant rock perches, and individuals with more perches in their home range survive better, but local crowding in preferred habitat reduces fitness (Aliperti et al., 2022). Bolder individuals defend larger core areas than shyer ones (Aliperti et al., 2021). Dispersal is largely male-biased in distance, occurs in the summer of birth, and is increased by the presence of littermate sisters (Nguyen et al., 2025); female dispersal in marmots is influenced by social embeddedness, with less socially integrated yearlings more likely to leave (Edic, 2022). Mothers also adjust offspring sex ratios in response to female kin density, producing more daughters when relatives are scarce and more sons when relatives crowd the neighborhood (Aliperti et al., 2017).
The acoustic and antipredator side of this work has been equally productive. Marmots distinguish predator urine from non-predator urine by scent alone (Blumstein et al., 2007), and a broader review of playback studies found that prey species with both ecological and evolutionary experience of predators show the strongest discrimination (Hettena et al., 2014). Multisensory integration theory predicts when animals will combine cues to reduce uncertainty about danger, and predicts that anthropogenic noise and disturbance can disrupt these processes (Munoz & Blumstein, 2012). To capture these signals at scale, RMBL researchers helped pioneer microphone-array systems that localize alarm calls within meters and enable remote, non-invasive monitoring of vocally active wildlife (Blumstein et al., 2011) (Allen et al., 2008).
Current frontier
Early work in the 1990s and 2000s established the basic life-history, behavioral, and acoustic toolkit; recent studies since 2020, which account for roughly a third of all publications, have shifted focus to climate change, human disturbance, and individual-level variation. Comparative analyses now show that species with faster life histories are more sensitive to climatic variation, while slow-lived species (like marmots) buffer their critical vital rates from climate perturbations, and that interactions between density and climate amplify or dampen population responses (Ickin et al., 2025). At the individual level, the slow-fast continuum that organizes variation across species does not actually structure variation among individuals within a single marmot or bird population, suggesting that within-population life-history diversity is shaped by idiosyncratic environmental and social processes (Van de Walle et al., 2023). Temporal correlations among demographic rates are turning out to be ubiquitous across long-term study populations, with implications for extinction risk modeling (Fay et al., 2022).
Human impacts are a second frontier. Daily roadkill monitoring along the Gothic road shows that adult female ground squirrels suffer disproportionate vehicular mortality, especially during peak summer tourism (Burgstahler et al., 2023), and increasing impervious surface near settlements is associated with habituation in least chipmunks (Mikaru, 2025). Phenological mismatch is also emerging as a concern: ground squirrel spring emergence and dandelion flowering are shifting in different directions over decades, altering the overlap between lactation and peak forage availability (Grimland, 2024). Methodologically, the field is moving toward acoustic sensor networks, camera traps with machine-learning classifiers, social network analysis of long-term individual datasets, and a renewed conversation about how best to archive and share these irreplaceable long-term records (Mills et al., 2015).
Open questions
Many puzzles remain. How will the interaction between earlier snowmelt, longer summers, and shifting plant phenology reshape the narrow window in which young must grow and fatten before hibernation? How heritable are dispersal and social phenotypes in the wild, and how strongly does selection act on them when populations fluctuate dramatically from year to year? Why does crowding by female kin sometimes raise maternal mortality but also stabilize matrilines, and how do these effects scale up to population growth? What are the cumulative consequences of growing recreational use of the Gunnison Basin for behavior, stress physiology, and demography, especially for the female-biased segment of the population most exposed to roads? Finally, as acoustic, genetic, and movement datasets accumulate, integrating them across decades and species at RMBL offers a rare chance to test general theories of life-history evolution against real, individually known animals living through real climate change.
References
Aliperti, J. R., et al. (2011). Bottlenecks and rescue effects in a fluctuating population of golden-mantled ground squirrels. →
Aliperti, J. R., et al. (2017). Female kin density affects offspring sex ratio in an asocial mammal, the golden-mantled ground squirrel. →
Aliperti, J. R., et al. (2021). Bridging animal personality with space use and resource use in a free-ranging population of an asocial ground squirrel. →
Aliperti, J. R., et al. (2022). Habitat selection in a fluctuating ground squirrel population: density-dependence and fitness consequences. Ecology and Evolution. →
Allen, M., Girod, L., Newton, R., Madden, S., Blumstein, D. T., Estrin, D. (2008). VoxNet: an interactive, rapidly-deployable acoustic monitoring platform. ISPN 2008: Information Processing in Sensor Networks. →
Armitage, K. B. (2014). Marmot Biology. Cambridge University Press. →
Blumstein, D. T. (1991). Age-sex variation in marmot alarm calling. →
Blumstein, D. T. (1991). Alarm calling in yellow-bellied marmots. →
Blumstein, D. T., et al. (2004). Do yellow-bellied marmots respond to predator vocalisations? →
Blumstein, D. T., et al. (2007). Olfactory predator discrimination abilities of yellow-bellied marmots. →
Blumstein, D. T., et al. (2011). Acoustic monitoring in terrestrial environments using microphone arrays. Journal of Applied Ecology. →
Burgstahler, J., et al. (2023). Daily roadkill monitoring and long-term population census reveal female-biased mortality for a small mammal along a wildland-urban interface. Biological Conservation. →
Edic, M. (2022). Estimating the heritability of female dispersal in yellow-bellied marmots. →
Fay, R., et al. (2022). Temporal correlations among demographic parameters are ubiquitous but highly variable across species. Ecology Letters. →
Grimland, A. (2024). Effects of trophic phenological synchrony or dyssynchrony on maternal investment of a small herbivorous mammal. →
Hettena, A. M., Munoz, N., Blumstein, D. T. (2014). Prey responses to predator's sounds: a review and empirical study. Ethology. →
Hostetler, J. A., et al. (2011). Influence of population density and climate on the demography of subalpine golden-mantled ground squirrels. →
Ickin, M., et al. (2025). Comparative life-cycle analyses reveal interacting climatic and biotic drivers of population responses to climate change. PNAS Nexus. →
Jones, O. R., et al. (2008). Senescence rates are determined by ranking on the fast-slow life-history continuum. Ecology Letters. →
Kanaziz, R., et al. (2022). Maternal survival costs in an asocial mammal. Ecology and Evolution. →
Kneip, E., et al. (2012). Stochastic population dynamics of a montane ground-dwelling squirrel. →
Mikaru, K. (2025). Assessing anthropogenic effects on golden-mantled ground squirrel and least chipmunk flight initiation distances. →
Mills, J. A., Teplitsky, C., Arroyo, B. (2015). Archiving primary data: solutions for long-term studies. Trends in Ecology and Evolution. →
Morris, W. F., et al. (2008). Longevity can buffer plant and animal populations against changing climatic uncertainty. →
Munoz, N. E., Blumstein, D. T. (2012). Multisensory perception in uncertain environments. Behavioral Ecology. →
Nguyen, A., et al. (2025). Dispersal of the golden-mantled ground squirrel (Callospermophilus lateralis). Journal of Mammalogy. →
Van de Walle, J., et al. (2023). Individual life histories: neither slow nor fast, just diverse. Proceedings of the Royal Society B. →
Species (106) →
Marmota flaviventris
small mammals
Ursus americanus
Puma concolor
Peromyscus
Odocoileus
prairie dogs
golden eagle
Canis latrans
Martes americana
Show 96 more speciess
Spermophilus lateralis
Tamiasciurus hudsonicus
Ochotona
Peromyscus maniculatus
Parus major
Callospermophilus lateralis
Vulpes vulpes
Vatellus lateralis
Marmota monax
Starling
Eutamias minimus
white-tailed deer
Urocitellus columbianus
Alces alces
Canis lupus
Ursus arctos
Urocitellus beldingi
Microtus montanus
Tamiasciurus
Zapus princeps
Cervus elaphus
Neogale frenata
deer mice
Otospermophilus beecheyi
Urocitellus
montane vole
long-tailed weasels
Microtus pennsylvanicus
Grizzly bear
Cynomys ludovicianus
Poecilia reticulata
Cynomys gunnisoni
brown bear
Gasterosteus aculeatus
Mus musculus
Urocitellus armatus
Mustela erminea
Phenacomys
Passer domesticus
Rangifer tarandus
Mus musculus domesticus
Procyon lotor
Microtus ochrogaster
blue jay
mountain sheep
Enhydra lutris
Aix sponsa
wood duck
Myodes
Lynx rufus
Equus caballus
Xerus inauris
Rattus norvegicus
Peromyscus leucopus
Microtus californicus
Trypanosoma
ermine
Myotis lucifugus
Helogale parvula
Sorex palustris
fur seals
Lycaon pictus
Microtus longicaudus
M. longicaudus
long-tailed vole
wood thrush
Sorex vagrans
Lathyrus latifolius
tree squirrels
Clethrionomys rufocanus
Eutamias quadrivittatus
Cynomys leucurus
Common crow
Toxoplasma gondii
wood rat
Myodes gapperi
red-backed voles
Peromyscus mexicanus
Lemmiscus
Bison antiquus
gray wolf
Canis dirus
Gunnison Prairie Dog
Canada Geese
Carolina wren
Eimeria spp.
Peromyscus polionotus
Microcebus murinus
dolphins
Water pipit
Anthus spinoletta
Eptesicus fuscus
cottontail rabbits
Saccharomyces cerevisiae
Rangifer tarandus platyrhynchus
Strix occidentalis caurina
Concept (167) →
antipredator behavior
Behaviors that reduce the likelihood of predation, including vigilance and evasion tactics
winter survival
Survival of organisms through winter diapause or dormancy, often related to environmental conditions during overwintering
slow-fast continuum
A commonly used framework to describe variation in life-history strategies across species, ranking organisms from slow to fast living based on combina...
alarm communication
Vocal signals produced in response to predator detection to warn conspecifics or communicate threat information
social phenotype
Quantifiable aspects of social behavior and social structure that can be subject to natural selection
density dependence
Population regulation mechanism where demographic rates depend on population density through competition and resource limitation
social network analysis
A method used to quantify social relationships that not only quantifies the direct relationship between a focal individual and its social partners, bu...
flight initiation distance
The distance at which an individual initiates moving away from an approaching humans, reflecting flightiness of an animal in response to a potential p...
vital rates
Demographic rates including survival, growth, flowering probability, seed production, and germination that determine population dynamics
mark-recapture
Method for estimating demographic parameters by marking individuals and tracking recapture histories over time
Show 157 more concepts
time allocation tradeoff
The finite time and energy budget forcing organisms to trade off between competing activities like foraging and vigilance
vigilance behavior
Time allocation to scanning for predators versus other activities like foraging, measured through specific postures and head orientations
maternal care
Parental behaviors including female-pup interactions, vigilance, and antipredator behaviors that influence offspring survival and development
acoustic playback experiment
Experimental technique using recorded sounds played back to animals to test behavioral or physiological responses to acoustic stimuli
environmental stochasticity
Random environmental variation that affects demographic parameters across all individuals in a population simultaneously
nesting preferences
The selective choices made by organisms regarding where to construct nests, influenced by environmental factors that affect offspring survival and rep...
recreational trail impacts
Effects of human recreational activities on wildlife communities through habitat alteration, disturbance, and behavioral changes
vocal individuality
The degree to which individuals can be discriminated from one another based on their vocalizations, quantified using information theory
philopatry
tendency of an organism to stay in or habitually return to a particular area
habituation
Process by which animals become less responsive to repeated non-threatening stimuli over time
dispersal
The movement away from your place of birth and onto another location involving decision to depart, displacement, and settlement
anthropogenic disturbance
Human activities that impose novel challenges on a wide range of species, which can negatively influence individuals, populations, and communities as ...
camera trapping
Non-invasive wildlife monitoring technique using motion-triggered cameras to detect and photograph animals
centrality measures
Network statistics that quantify the importance or influence of individuals within social networks, including degree, closeness, betweenness, and eige...
small mammal activity patterns
Temporal and spatial patterns of small mammal behavior and presence
kin selection
Natural selection that favors behaviors that benefit relatives, even at a cost to the individual performing the behavior
maternal care
behavioral syndromes
Correlations between multiple repeatable, individually distinct behaviors that form consistent behavioral patterns across situations
summer survival
Probability of surviving the summer active season, measured by last sighting dates relative to seasonal cutoffs
reproductive suppression
Reduction in reproductive output of individuals due to presence of other conspecifics, particularly older or dominant individuals
reproductive senescence
A within-individual process caused by deterioration in molecular and physiological function resulting in a decrease in survival probability and reprod...
body condition
Measure of an animal's physical state, often assessed through body mass relative to size
group size effect
The hypothesis that animals allocate less time to antipredator vigilance as a function of increasing numbers of animals foraging together
polygamous mating system
Mating system where males compete with one another over access to matelines consisting of groups of related females
inbreeding depression
Reduced fitness in inbred individuals compared to outbred individuals due to expression of deleterious recessive alleles
animal personality
Consistent individual differences in behaviour across time and contexts, concept known as animal personality, behavioural types, temperament or coping...
focal animal sampling
Behavioral observation method where a single individual is observed continuously for a fixed time period
phylogenetically independent contrasts
A method to test for phylogenetic signal by comparing empirical data variance to variance from randomly reshuffled species identities across trait dat...
fecal glucocorticoid metabolites
Metabolites of stress hormones measured in fecal samples as a proxy for physiological stress levels
docility
Individual's reaction to being trapped and handled, measured on behavioral scale from aggressive to passive responses
Social Security Hypothesis
Individuals in more tightly connected social groups perceive greater security from predators and allocate less time to antipredator vigilance while fo...
hibernation
A life-history trait that buffers marmots against climate change by allowing them to escape changes in climate and effectively expand their ecological...
time budget
The allocation of time among different activities that determines overall energy expenditure patterns
stress hormones
Cortisol and glucocorticoids that help regulate energy balance in animals and could determine dispersal behavior under stressful conditions
functionally referential communication
Signals that meet criteria of stimulus-class specificity and contextual independence, where alarm calls are said to be functionally referential when t...
neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio
Ratio of neutrophil to lymphocyte white blood cell counts used as a measure of immune response activity
animal model
Statistical approach that includes individual identity as a random effect linked to a pedigree to estimate additive genetic variance
resting metabolic rate
The rate of energy expenditure for basic physiological maintenance processes, measured as CO₂ emission rate.
intrusion competition
Competition where individuals attempt to take over established breeding resources from other pairs
dominance hierarchy
Social ranking system based on agonistic interactions where some individuals consistently dominate others
antisocial behavior
Directed aggression toward conspecifics, increasing spatial distancing from or decreasing huddling with unfamiliar conspecifics
reproduction ratio
The average number of offspring produced by a typical individual during its life, calculated as the product of offspring number and survival probabili...
age at first reproduction
The age at which females first reproduce, an important component of vertebrate life histories with effects on individual fitness and population dynami...
vehicular collision mortality
Mortality from roadkill events where animals are struck and killed by vehicles
intraclass correlation coefficient
Statistical measure of repeatability that tests individual consistency of a continuous variable by comparing within-subject and between-subject variat...
intra-individual variation
Variation in behavioral expression within individuals across time or contexts
Life Table Response Experiment
A method to partition variance in population growth rate into contributions arising from temporal covariances of demographic parameters at different t...
acoustic localization
Method to determine the spatial origin of sound sources using arrays of microphones and signal processing techniques
stable isotope analysis
Analysis of carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios to determine trophic position and dietary composition
matrilineal society
Social organization where related females remain together and males typically disperse
boldness
Individual's reaction to a non-novel, risky situation
food supplementation
Experimental provision of additional food resources to wild populations to test resource limitation hypotheses
population sensitivity
Scaled measure of how population growth rate responds to changes in environmental drivers
compensatory growth
Ability of organisms to compensate for poor early-life conditions through increased feeding or altered resource allocation later in life
survival probability
The likelihood that an individual survives from one time period to the next
trade-offs
Situations where time spent on one activity reduces time available for other activities
juvenile growth
Mass gain patterns in young animals during their first active season before hibernation
asymptotic growth
Growth pattern characterized by an initial period of mass gain followed by stabilization before hibernation entry
age at sexual maturity
inclusive fitness
Fitness benefits that include both direct fitness (individual's own reproductive success) and indirect fitness (fitness gained by helping relatives re...
ecotourism
Nature-based tourism activities that can provide conservation benefits but may also impact wildlife behavior through human presence
transgenerational plasticity
Plasticity that occurs across generations where parental environmental effects influence offspring phenotype or fitness
bout length
The duration of continuous engagement in a particular behavioral activity
nonlinearity and fear hypothesis
Hypothesis that highly aroused animals produce nonlinear vocalizations because they lose control of their larynx over vocal fold production apparatus
hemispheric lateralization
Specialization of left and right brain hemispheres to carry out specific activities, with right hemisphere processing threats and left hemisphere proc...
affiliative social relationships
Positive social interactions and bonds between individuals including behaviors like grooming, playing, and proximity maintenance
litter relocation behavior
Behavior in which a female moves her litter to a new location
acoustic communication
Communication through sound production that requires receivers to detect and discern between distinct acoustic signals
spatial aliasing
Ambiguity in direction estimation that occurs when sensor spacing exceeds half the wavelength of the signal
interaction strength
collaborative sensing
Approach where multiple distributed sensors work together to achieve better performance than individual sensors
social embeddedness
The degree to which an individual is integrated in their group based on the number of independent links to others in the group
condition dependence
The concept that signal production and structure depend on an individual's health status and condition
discriminant function analysis
Statistical technique used to classify observations into predefined groups based on multiple variables
long-term ecological studies
Ecological research projects that follow individuals or systems over extended periods, often spanning decades
temporal demographic correlation
The correlation between different demographic parameters (survival, reproduction, productivity) measured across the same time periods within a populat...
litter sex composition
The proportion of male versus female offspring in a litter affecting prenatal hormone exposure
information entropy
A quantitative measure of uncertainty about an outcome of a draw from a probability distribution
acoustic adaptation hypothesis
Explains how acoustic signal structure is shaped by habitat-driven selection that enhances the propagation of relatively undegraded vocalizations
sound degradation
Attenuation and degradation of sound over distance due to atmospheric absorption, ground attenuation, signal scattering, and deflection by layered sur...
acoustic entropy
Measure of how noisy or random a sound is, with pure tones having entropy values approaching negative infinity
brain-gut axis
Communication between the central and enteric nervous systems as a potential mechanism for microbiome-behavior relationships
anogenital distance
The distance between the anus and the genital papilla, used as a non-invasive measure of prenatal exposure to sex steroid hormones
home range
The area traversed by an individual in its normal activities of food gathering, mating and caring for young
neophobia
An aversion to novel stimuli, measured as latency to touch the puzzle box from stepping onto the platform
burn severity
Clutton-Brock index
A method for calculating dominance based on an individual's relative number of wins or losses that is tolerant of missing pair-wise interactions and w...
inbreeding coefficient
Measure of the level of inbreeding within a population, with values close to 1.0 indicating high levels of inbreeding
multipredator hypothesis
Assumes that antipredator adaptations evolve together and thus prey may respond to extinct predators as long as they have experience with other predat...
personality
social cohesion hypothesis
The hypothesis that the more an individual interacts with others, the less likely they are to disperse
social thermoregulation
Behavioral and physiological mechanisms whereby group-living animals share body heat to reduce thermoregulatory costs
social complexity
Demographic metric based on information theory quantifying the variation in social group composition across age and sex classes
communication complexity evolution
The evolutionary processes leading to the development of multiple distinct call types in animal communication systems
agonistic interactions
practice hypothesis
The hypothesis that play provides an opportunity to practice and refine skills that will be needed later in adulthood
multistate model
A capture-recapture model that accounts for transitions between different states (e.g., age classes) and estimates state-specific survival and detecti...
masculinization
The process by which female mammals that develop in male-biased litters show signs of masculinization because they are exposed to testosterone produce...
experience-independent mechanism
Predator recognition abilities that do not require prior learning or experience with predators but are based on innate or genetically-determined respo...
hibernation ecology
Winter survival strategy of some small mammals that may affect their vulnerability to avalanche disturbance depending on burrow depth and emergence ti...
cut points
Number of social ties that if cut will result in two or more separate networks, measuring group fragmentation
non-invasive sampling
Sampling methods that do not require capturing or handling animals, such as hair tube traps that collect hair samples
locomotor performance
Maximum running speed of an individual measured during chase trials
aggressiveness
group living
Social organization where individuals aggregate in groups, potentially providing antipredator benefits through collective vigilance and dilution effec...
among-individual correlation
Correlation between behavioral traits at the individual level, estimated while controlling for within-individual variation and environmental effects
small mammal abundance
Relative number of small mammals detected through camera trap monitoring expressed as activity indices
male-biased dispersal
Pattern where male mammals tend to travel farther than females in exploratory excursions and disperse more than females
gene family expansion
mass gain
Proportional increase in body mass during the active growing season, calculated as August 15 body mass divided by June 1 body mass
demographic buffering hypothesis
Hypothesis that populations may be buffered from adverse climatic effects when vital rates with high impacts on population growth exhibit the least te...
parasite infection
Infection by internal parasites including blood-borne trypanosomes and intestinal parasites that can affect host behavior and physiology
rolling circle amplification
DNA amplification technique that amplifies circular DNA templates using phi29 DNA polymerase
predation risk
Risk of being consumed by predators, which differs between fish-containing and fishless streams
demographic social roles
The idea that individuals of different age-sex categories contribute differently to social structure and cohesion
flight metabolic rate
The total volume of CO₂ emitted during flight trials, which reflects overall flight performance including endurance.
MHC class II
Major histocompatibility complex genes involved in antigen presentation and immune response
Type II survivorship curve
A survivorship pattern where approximately constant proportions of individuals survive through each age class
acoustic transmission fidelity
A measure of how well acoustic signals maintain their structure when transmitted through different environments
social reciprocity
Measures the proportion of relationships within a group where both individuals initiate interactions with each other, indicating mutual social relatio...
genetic rescue
Improvement in population fitness through the introduction of new genetic material
multisensory integration
The combining of information from multiple sensory modalities that influences decision-making
sensor network
Distributed network of environmental sensors measuring diverse phenomena across watershed for understanding and predicting watershed behavior
energy conservation
Physiological and behavioral adaptations to minimize energy expenditure
group size effects
Changes in social behavior and group dynamics that result from variation in the number of individuals in a social group
mutual tolerance
When any social group contains 2 or more males with neither male forced to leave the group because of conflict
multiple paternity
Litters where offspring are sired by more than one male
interpath angle
The angle between the paths of predator and prey to the prey's refuge, expressing degree to which prey must run towards an approaching predator
social learning
Learning that occurs through observation or interaction with other individuals
individual-based model
Computational model that simulates individual organisms and their life histories to understand population-level patterns
partner preference
When animals prefer to associate with certain individuals over others within a group
reproductive skew
Unequal distribution of reproduction among group members, with some individuals having much higher reproductive success than others
data archiving
The practice of making research data publicly available for verification and reuse
repeatability
The proportion of variance in a trait that is explained by individual identity, indicating consistency of individual differences over time and across ...
innovation
The ability to devise a novel solution to a novel or existing problem, measured as successful opening of puzzle box
behavioral diversity
A measure of the variety of behaviors an individual uses, calculated using Shannon index across different behavioral categories during problem-solving...
circadian clock
Internal biological timing system that maintains rhythmicity in a wide range of behavioral, physiological, and metabolic processes
common garden experiment
Experimental design where seeds from broad elevational gradient planted into four common gardens in four treatments
boldness
Risk-taking behavior calculated from flight initiation distance to a simulated predator approach
covariance reaction norm
Statistical model allowing phenotypic correlations between traits to vary continuously with environmental predictors
exploration
Behavioral tendency to investigate novel environments, measured through open-field tests
within-individual centering approach
An analytical approach where deviations from an individual's average behavior or phenotype are calculated to quantify and analyze how an individual's ...
ontogeny
An individual's development from egg to adult
social microbiome
The relationship between the microbiome and sociality in animals
mirror image stimulus test
Behavioral test using mirror exposure to gauge shy and bold behavior through observed interactions with reflection
costs and benefits of sociality
Theoretical framework examining trade-offs between advantages and disadvantages of group living
reciprocal altruism
Individuals participate in seemingly altruistic behaviors because they have reciprocal relationships and take turns
reproductive status
Classification of female reproductive phase as gestation/lactation or post-reproductive/pre-hibernation
detection probability
The probability of detecting a species given that it is present at a site
iteroparous
Reproductive strategy where organisms reproduce multiple times throughout their lifetime
life history traits
Ecological and life history traits that determine a bird species response to extreme meteorological events and vary with elevation
social structure
Organization of individuals within populations based on family groups and territorial patterns
multilevel selection
subsistence hunting
contextual analysis
Extension of the Lande-Arnold selection analysis using partial regression to partition selection among levels
generation time
The mean age of females when they lay eggs or give birth, calculated as the inverse of the sum of elasticities of population growth rate to changes in...
wildlife management
Applied ecology approach to managing wild animal populations, including use of repellents to control animal damage
Protocol (60) →
mark-recapture (Sciuridae)
A 20-year longitudinal study tracking individually marked female marmots through live-trapping, unique marking, and behavioral observations to quantif...
focal animal sampling (Sciuridae)
Live-trapping and marking of yellow-bellied marmots followed by systematic focal behavioral observations to quantify time allocation to different beha...
Social network analysis (Sciuridae)
Direct observation of social interactions using binoculars and spotting scopes during peak activity periods. Interactions are classified as affiliativ...
Flight initiation distance measurement (Sciuridae)
Systematic measurement of antipredator escape behavior by approaching focal individuals at standardized speed and recording distances at key behaviora...
automated weather monitoring (Sciuridae)
Integration of temperature, precipitation, and snow cover data from multiple weather stations and remote sensing platforms to characterize environment...
Blumstein & Daniel transmission fidelity technique (Sciuridae)
Digital recording and spectral analysis of alarm vocalizations to quantify entropy and goodness of pitch as measures of call structure and acoustic pr...
LTRE analysis (Sciuridae)
Stage-mass-structured IPMs incorporating seasonal demographic transitions and environmental stochasticity for population viability analysis. Uses pros...
microsatellite parentage assignment (Sciuridae)
DNA extraction from hair samples followed by microsatellite genotyping to determine parentage relationships and construct molecular pedigrees for quan...
radioimmunoassay (Sciuridae)
Progesterone concentrations measured using radioimmunoassay with tritiated progesterone, ether extraction, and antibody binding assay. Standard curves...
focal animal sampling (Cervidae)
Controlled experiment using feeding stations paired with predator scent cues to test antipredator behavioral responses. Individual feeding times are r...
Show 50 more protocols
fecal flotation (Sciuridae)
Fecal sample collection and zinc sulfate flotation protocol for detecting intestinal parasites including Ascaris, Eimeria, and Entamoeba in marmot fec...
Visual and camera trap survey of small mammals
Combined direct visual observation during peak activity periods with motion-activated camera bucket traps to determine species presence/absence in mea...
camera trap survey
Camera traps deployed along trails in a stratified random design to detect wildlife presence and estimate occupancy while accounting for detection pro...
mark-recapture (Cricetidae)
Standard live-trapping protocol using Longworth traps in grid arrays for mark-recapture population estimation of small mammals with individual marking...
radio-telemetry (Sciuridae)
Intensive monitoring of juvenile emergence and movements using daily visual observations and grid-based distance calculations to characterize dispersa...
change point analysis (Sciuridae)
Statistical method using continuous two-phase models to identify the age at which body mass growth stabilizes at adult levels in golden-mantled ground...
residual body condition index (Sciuridae)
Linear mixed effect models to estimate individual body mass at key seasonal transition points, accounting for day-of-year effects and random variation...
systematic literature review (Cervidae)
Field playback experiments testing Mule deer responses to predator and control vocalizations. Single observer approached focal deer, conducted pre- an...
neutrophil:lymphocyte ratio (Sciuridae)
Blood collection and analysis to determine neutrophil and lymphocyte counts for calculating neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratios as a measure of immune res...
parent-offspring regression (Sciuridae)
Mixed-effects modeling approach to partition phenotypic variance into genetic and environmental components using pedigree information and repeated mea...
JWatcher behavioral analysis
Systematic recording and quantification of animal behaviors using standardized ethogram categories and time budget analysis with JWatcher software.
Behavioral discrimination experiments for individual recognition (Sciuridae)
Controlled experiments testing marmots' ability to distinguish between individuals using acoustic and olfactory cues to assess recognition capabilitie...
capture-recapture
Individual animals are uniquely marked and tracked through capture-recapture over multiple decades to estimate survival, reproduction, and productivit...
Remote sensing snowmelt and habitat mapping (Sciuridae)
Use of remote sensing data to determine snowmelt timing and map marmot colony boundaries. Combines satellite imagery analysis with ground-truthed colo...
Food supplementation experiment (Sciuridae)
Controlled feeding experiment providing different protein levels of horse feed to different matrilines while maintaining reference populations. Tests ...
generalized linear mixed model (Sciuridae)
Bayesian statistical approach to simultaneously estimate individual lifetime means and variances in social traits from longitudinal data. Controls for...
Grid-based habitat characterization (Sciuridae)
Systematic measurement of microhabitat features including vegetation height, cover, and structural elements like perches within a standardized 7×7-m g...
ENSBox collaborative acoustic localization
A distributed wireless sensor network approach using tetrahedral microphone arrays to detect and localize animal vocalizations through collaborative D...
Reproductive success assessment in marmots (Sciuridae)
Assessment of female reproductive success through behavioral observation of pup emergence from natal burrows and pedigree analysis to assign offspring...
open-field test (Sciuridae)
Standardized 4-minute test immediately following open field test where a mirror is revealed to measure sociability and aggressive responses toward con...
Predation risk assessment through predator counts (Sciuridae)
Systematic predator monitoring during behavioral observations to quantify predation pressure. Creates predation index by dividing predator counts by o...
GIS-based human disturbance quantification (Sciuridae)
RASTER-based spatial analysis to quantify multiple metrics of anthropogenic disturbance including distance to infrastructure and proportion of impervi...
Live-trap docility assessment (Sciuridae)
Live-trapping of marmots to assess docility through standardized behavioral responses during capture and handling, including alarm calling propensity ...
Controlled acoustic playback validation
Systematic playback of pre-recorded animal vocalizations from known positions and orientations to validate localization algorithm performance under co...
GIS-based meadow habitat mapping for ground squirrels
Used raster analysis in ArcGIS to identify suitable ground squirrel habitat by combining landcover and canopy height data, then calculated distance-fr...
Puzzle box innovation testing (Sciuridae)
Deployment of novel puzzle boxes with multiple solution pathways to test problem-solving ability and innovation in wild animals. Video recorded trials...
Phylogenetically independent contrasts
A standard comparative method that controls for evolutionary relationships among species by analyzing evolutionary changes along phylogenetic branches...
radiotelemetry (Sciuridae)
Colony sites are visited daily starting April 19th each year to record the first emergence date of individual marmots from hibernation through direct ...
Clutton-Brock index (Sciuridae)
Mathematical method for calculating relative dominance ranks from pairwise interaction outcomes that is tolerant of missing data and accounts for grou...
multistate capture-mark-recapture models (Animalia)
Statistical modeling of capture-recapture data to estimate seasonal survival probabilities across age classes using program MARK with model selection ...
Minimum convex polygon method (Sciuridae)
Calculation of individual animal home ranges using 95% minimum convex polygons from location data, with specific criteria for minimum observation requ...
Subsurface temperature logging
Long-term monitoring of subsurface temperatures in pika habitat using buried data loggers to characterize thermal stress and microclimate conditions.
RNA sequencing (Sciuridae)
RNA extraction from blood samples, library preparation, and high-throughput sequencing on Illumina platforms followed by read mapping and differential...
Cormack-Jolly-Seber model (Sciuridae)
Semi-parametric survival analysis using Cox proportional hazard models to test effects of maternal, social, and environmental covariates on annual sur...
anogenital distance measurement (Sciuridae)
Measurement of anogenital distance using dial or digital callipers to 1mm accuracy as a proxy for prenatal testosterone exposure and masculinization. ...
Viral metagenomics from mammalian feces (Sciuridae)
A comprehensive protocol for extracting, amplifying, sequencing and analyzing viral DNA from fecal samples to identify microviral genomes. Uses rollin...
Tourist traffic volume indexing (Sciuridae)
Weekly counts of visitors at a facility to create a traffic volume index as a proxy for vehicle traffic on nearby roads during peak visitation periods...
Randomization test for inbreeding avoidance (Sciuridae)
Monte Carlo simulation comparing observed reproductive pair relatedness to expected relatedness under random mating to test for inbreeding avoidance.
VoxNet distributed acoustic sensing platform deployment (Sciuridae)
Deployment and operation of networked embedded sensor nodes for distributed acoustic monitoring using custom hardware and WaveScript programming langu...
454 sequencing (Animalia)
454 sequencing to characterize genetic diversity at the DRB Class II locus in montane voles.
coefficient of relatedness calculation (Sciuridae)
Construction of genealogies from long-term observational data and estimation of coefficients of relatedness using Hamilton's method with assumptions a...
Intensive behavioral monitoring of meerkats
Frequent visits to wild meerkat groups to record births, deaths, emigration, and social status changes over 20 years of continuous observation.
phylogenetic comparative method (Sciuridae)
Integration of molecular phylogeny with life history and energetic data to identify evolutionary patterns of energy conservation traits across marmot ...
Marmot blood sampling for viral screening (Sciuridae)
Blood collection from trapped wild marmots via femoral vein puncture during routine handling for long-term population studies. Sera separated and froz...
Metabolic monitoring during marmot torpor entry (Sciuridae)
Simultaneous measurement of oxygen consumption, body temperature, and conductance in marmots entering torpor to determine mechanisms of metabolic depr...
PRISMA systematic review
Standardized literature search and screening process to identify and synthesize studies on hibernating mammal responses to climate change, followed by...
Principal Component Analysis
Statistical analysis of stream chemistry data transformed to compositional units using PCA to evaluate spatial and temporal trends while removing effe...
Approximated Maximum Likelihood algorithm (Sciuridae)
Uses array of wireless acoustic sensors with correlation envelope sum (CES) method to precisely locate sources of marmot alarm calls in field settings...
Multi-species life-history PCA analysis
Principal component analysis applied across multiple species using demographic traits to identify major axes of life-history variation and test for sl...
matrix population model
Construction and parameterization of periodic matrix population models to project population dynamics under different scenarios of environmental perio...
Publication (163) →
Habitat selection in a fluctuating ground squirrel population: Density - dependence and fitness consequences
Bridging animal personality with space use and resource use in a free-ranging population of an asocial ground squirrel
Individual life histories: neither slow nor fast, just diverse
Predator and prey species have opposing responses to recreational trail use
The influence of human recreational trail use has on rodent and predator activity using motion triggered cameras
Do mule deer respond to the sounds of their predators?
Developmental and social constraints on early reproduction in an asocial ground squirrel
Dispersal of the golden-mantled ground squirrel (Callospermophilus lateralis)
Daily roadkill monitoring and long-term population census reveal female-biased mortality for a small mammal along a wildland-urban interface
Differential response of three large mammal species to human recreation in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, USA
Show 153 more publications
Litter relocation behavior in two species of ground dwelling squirrels
Influence of population density and climate on the demography of subalpine golden-mantled ground squirrels
Prey responses to predator’s sounds: a review and empirical study.
Causes and consequences of pre-hibernation body mass in golden-mantled ground squirrels (Callospermophilus lateralis)
Maternal survival costs in an asocial mammal
Temporal correlations among demographic parameters are ubiquitous but highly variable across species
Human activity affects the perception of risk by mule deer
The effects of recreational trail use on small mammal species richness and abundance
Parasite infection and host dynamics in a naturally fluctuating rodent population
Dispersal of the golden-mantled ground squirrel
Stochastic population dynamics of a montane ground-dwelling squirrel
Female choice in true bugs (Homoptera: Miridae)
Female kin density affects offspring sex ratio in an asocial mammal, the golden-mantled ground squirrell <i>Callospermophilus lateralis</i>
Solutions for archiving data in long-term studies - a reply to Whitlock et al.
The Landscape of Fear and Trophic Cascades: Does Human Presence at RMBL Affect Deer Behavior?
Bottlenecks and rescue effects in a fluctuating population of golden-mantled ground squirrels (<i>Spermophilus lateralis</i>)
Acoustic monitoring in terrestrial environments using microphone arrays: applications, technological considerations and prospectus
Estimating the effect of temporal autocorrelated environments on the demography of density-independent age-structured populations
Mule deer (<i>Odocoileus hemionus</i>) respond to yellow-bellied marmot (<i>Marmota flaviventris</i>) alarm calls
Stable isotopes reflect the ecological stability of two high-elevation mammals from the late Quaternary of Colorado
An empirical study of acoustic source localization
An empirical study of collaborative acoustic source localization
Effects of trophic phenological synchrony or dyssynchrony on maternal investment of a small herbivorous mammal (Callospermophilus lateralis)
Invasive <i>Linaria vulgaris</i>, disturbance, and diversity: associations at multiple spatial scales in Colorado
Effects of recreational trails on small mammal communities in north-central Gunnison County, Colorado
Density effects on juvenile female dispersal in a population of golden-mantled ground squirrels
Development of Keras image classification model for use with a study on the effects of recreational trail use on small mammal species richness and activity
Behavioral strategies of golden-mantled ground squirrels, <i>Callospermophilus lateralis</i>
Do yellow-bellied marmots respond to predator vocalisations?
Senescence rates are determined by ranking on the fast-slow life-history continuum
Lateralized Function Without Lateralization
Early-life trade-offs in golden-mantled ground squirrel sociality and growth rate
Longevity can buffer plant and animal populations against changing climatic uncertainty.
Habitat Quality Affecting the Body Mass of Golden-mantled Ground Squirrels
Assessing anthropogenic effects on golden-mantled ground squirrel and least chipmunk flight initiation distances
Determining whether tourist abundance and reproductive status predispose golden-mantled ground squirrels (<i>Callospermophilus lateralis</i>) to vehicular accidents
Olfactory predator discrimination abilities of yellow-bellied marmots <i>(Marmota flaviventris)</i>
Estimating the heritability of female dispersal in yellow-bellied marmots
Testing predictions of the coexistence of golden-mantled ground squirrels, <i>Spermophilus lateralis</i>, and least chipmunks, <i>Tamias minimus</i>, in meadows with various distances from cover
Determinants of multiple paternity in a fluctuating population of ground squirrels
The effect of human activity on the vigilance rates of <i>Spermophilis lateralis</i> and <i>Tamias minimus</i>
Vigilance in the golden-mantled ground squirrel (<i>Spermophilus lateralis</i>): effect of age and distance to human-created structures
Mule deer (<i>Odocoileus hemionus</i>) detect coyote (<i>Canis latrans</i>) scent
The behavioral influence of nonlinear sound in Lincoln's Sparrow
Rodent societies
Using GIS techniques to test a model of the coexistence of the golden-mantled ground squirrel, Callospermopholis lateralis, and the least chipmunk, Tamias minimus
<i> Firmicutes </i> and <i> Bacteroidetes </i> explain mass gain variation in an obligate hibernator
Golden-Mantled Ground Squirrel (<i> Spermophilus lateralis </i>) and Yellow-Bellied Marmot ( <i> Marmota flaviventris </i>) Intraspecific and Interspecific Perch Use and Interaction Dynamics in Gothic, Colorado
VoxNet: an interactive, rapidly-deployable acoustic monitoring platform
The value of dihydrogen monoxide to a jumping mouse: habitat use and preference in <i>Zapus princeps</i>.
Heritability of Maternal Investment in Golden Mantled Ground Squirrels (<i>Callospermophilus lateralis</i>)
Multisensory perception in uncertain environments
An integrative study of marmot responses to ecotourism
Comparative life-cycle analyses reveal interacting climatic and biotic drivers of population responses to climate change
Optimal reproductive strategy in yellow-bellied marmots: Unveiling the consequences of age at first reproduction on survival and lifetime reproductive success
Pre-dispersal seed predation by <i>Hylema</i> (Delia) sp. (Diptera: Anthomyiidae): mechanisms and consequences of oviposition choice
Investigating patterns of juvenile dispersal in golden mantled ground squirrels, <i>Callospermophilus lateralis</i>
Archiving primary data: solutions for long-term studies.
Facilitated diffusion in erythrocytes of additional mammals
Holarctic marmots as a factor of biodiversity
The Influence of Summer Precipitation and Temperature on Golden Mantled Ground Squirrel Pup Foraging.
Social mating system and sex-biased dispersal in mammals and birds: a phylogenetic analysis.
Foraging behavior of parasitized and non-parasitized voles during new moon and full moon events
Biodiversity in marmots
Who pays? Intra- versus inter-generational costs of reproduction
Comparing Longworth live traps to hair tubes for describing small mammal communities
Effects of avalanches on rodent populations
Road impacts on the Baca National Wildlife Refuge, Colorado, with emphasis on effects to surface- and shallow ground-water hydrology - A literature review
Acoustic source localization using the acoustic ENSBox
Optimal multisensory integration
Behavioral syndromes in yellow-bellied marmots, <i>Marmota flaviventris</i>: Is there a correlation between boldness and exploration?
Holarctic marmots as a factor of biodiversity
Adaptive strategies and diversity in marmots
Holarctic marmots as a factor of biodiversity
Behavioral correlates of innovation success in facultatively social marmots (<i>Marmota flaviventer</i>)
Food habits of two sympatric Colorado sciurids
Automated wildlife monitoring using self-configuring sensor networks deployed in natural habitats
How demographic factors affect ground squirrel susceptibility to motor vehicle collisions
Holarctic Marmots as a Factor of Biodiversity
Are juvenile female golden mantle ground squirrels dispersing from their natal burrow due to high-stress levels?
Obituary: Kenneth Barclay Armitage (1925—2022)
Heart rates of free-ranging yellow-bellied marmots
Wild marmots’ social networks reveal controversial evolutionary theory in action
Harvest rates and escape speeds in two coexisting species of montane ground squirrels
Time-dependent averaging of foraging information in least chipmunks and golden-mantled ground squirrels
Hibernation in the Gunnison's prairie dog
Larval food plants for <i>Colias alexandria</i>: a survey of the distributions of <i>Lathyrus leucanthus</i> and <i>Vicia americana</i> near Gothic, Colorado
Duplication and population dynamics shape historic patterns of selection and genetic variation at the major histocompatibility complex in rodents
Niche differentiation in golden-mantled ground squirrels and the least chipmunk
Foraging behavior associated with predation risk in the golden-mantled ground squirrel and the least chipmunk
Polymorphisms at regulatory loci: quantitative inheritance of hemoglobin phenotypes in the deer mouse, Peromyscus maniculatus
Genetics of hemoglobin in the deer mouse, Peromyscus maniculatus. I. Multiple alpha and betaglobin structural loci
Skiing for science
Reproductive success of colonial and noncolonial female yellow-bellied marmots
Genetics of hemoglobin in the deer mouse, Peromyscus maniculatus. II. Multiple alleles at regulatory loci
Deer mouse hemoglobins: is there genetic adaptation to high altitude?
Microdistributions, food resources and feeding habits of filter-feeding Trichoptera in the Upper Colorado River
Social interactions and natal dispersal of young golden-mantled ground squirrels (<i>Spermophilus lateralis</i>)
Evolutionary conservation of linkage groups: additional evidence from murid and cricetid rodents
The relation between premolar wear and age in the yellow-bellied marmot, Marmota flaviventris
Foraging and predator avoidance in the golden-mantled ground squirrel (<i>Spermophilus lateralis</i>)
Foraging and habitat selection in <i>Eutamias minimus</i> and <i>Spermophilus lateralis</i>)
Comparison of <i>Aquilegia coerulea</i> and <i>Urtica gracilis</i> growing on and off talus
Effects of food supplementation on a population of golden-mantled ground squirrels, <i>Spermophilus lateralis</i>
Home range size, conspecific overlap, and weight gain of the golden-mantled ground squirrel, <i>Spermophilus lateralis</i>
Effects of supplemental food on growth and mobility of the golden-mantled ground squirrel, <i>Spermophilus lateralis</i>
Dispersal of yearling yellow bellied marmots <i>Marmota flaviventris</i>
Thermoregulation and water requirements in semiarid and montane populations of the least chipmunk, Eutamias minimus. III. Acclimatization at a high ambient temperature
Physiological ecology of the yellow-bellied marmot
Thermoregulation and water requirements in semiarid and montane populations of the least chipmunk, Eutamias minimus. II. Water balance
Habitat preference and observations of red-backed voles (<i>Clethrionomys gapperi</i>) and associated small mammals in Colorado
Thermoregulation and water requirements in semiarid and montane populations of the least chipmunk, Eutamias minimus. I. Metabolic rate and body temperature
Interment behavior in the yellow-bellied marmot (Marmota flaviventris)
Vocalizations of the long-tailed weasel (Mustela frenata)
Closely linked alpha-chain hemoglobin loci in Peromyscus and other mammals: speculations on the evolution of duplicate loci
A comparative study of the fine structure of the trophoblast in several hemochorial placentas
Behavioral responses to predation risk: survival strategies of the golden-mantled ground squirrel
Biodiversity in marmots
The distribution of genetic variation in a social mammal, the yellow-bellied marmot
Hematological parameters of high-elevation bushy-tailed woodrats
Automated recordings of body temperature from free-ranging yellow-bellied marmots
Behavioral and environmental factors in the spatial distribution and population dynamics of a yellow-bellied marmot population
Decoding the information contained in the alarm calls of Gunnison prairie dogs.
Population-level consequences of phenotypic plasticity in yellow-bellied marmots (<i>Marmota flaviventris</i>).
Socio-ecology of Marmota: reproductive strategies of female yellow-bellied marmots (<i>M. flaviventris</i>)
Lumbricid Earthworm Populations in a Colorado Mountain River
Occurence of a New Orange-tan Mutation in Peromyscus maniculatus rufinus from Delta County, Colorado
A comparative hematological study of Peromyscus in Louisiana and Colorado
Behavior of the red squirrel, <i>Tamiasciurus hudsonicus</i>
Marmot Biology
Male social behavior in a facultatively social rodent, the yellow-bellied marmot (<i>Marmota flaviventris</i>)
The predation impact of <i>Tamiasciurus hudsonicus</i> on nest site selection
Multimodal Integration in Uncertain Environments: A Quantitative Model and Field Experiments with Yellow-bellied Marmots (<i>Marmota flaviventris</i>).
The effects of avalanche disturbance on the diversity and abundance of small mammals in an aspen stand near Gothic, Colorado
Homing behavior in <i>Peromyscus maniculatus rufinus</i>, or, the mice came back (mostly)
Individual differences do not influence flight initiation distance in yellow-bellied marmots (<i>Marmota flaviventris</i>)
Ecological Genetics of Dispersal and Mating Systems in Populations of Yellow-Bellied Marmots (<i>Marmota flaviventris</i>)
The effect of feeding supplement on time budgets in yellow-bellied marmots (<i>Marmota flaviventris</i>)
Comparison between plant species in bushy-tailed woodrat middens and in the habitat
Enzyme polymorphism and metabolism
On the ecology of long-tailed weasels: a pilot study
Comparing different diets for <i>Peromyscus maniculatus</i>
Hematological adaptation to Hypoxia in Peromyscus and Microtus at high and low altitude.
Age and sex variations in homing behavior of <i>Peromyscus maniculatus rufinus</i>
The microtine rodents from the Pit locality in Porcupine Cave, Park County, Colorado
Scent-marking by yellow-bellied marmots
Altitudinal variation of metabolic rates in <i>Peromyscus maniculatus</i>
Field studies on <i>Peromyscus maniculatus</i>
Time of day and visitation affects on nectar volumes throughout the day in <i>Aquilegia caerulea</i>
Homing tendencies in <i>Peromyscus maniculatus</i> utilizing Gothic area house pets
Enzyme polymorphism and biosystematics: the hypothesis of selective neutrality
Blood group complexity: the Pm locus in Peromyscus maniculatus
Radio tracking of dispersing yellow-bellied marmots
Dataset (24) →
Data from: Individual life histories: Neither slow nor fast, just diverse
The slow-fast continuum is known to structure variation in life-history strategies across species. Within populations, it is also assumed to structure...
Demographic consequences of changes in environmental periodicity
The fate of natural populations is mediated by complex interactions among vital rates, which can vary within and among years. While the effects of ran...
Marmot capture history data and growing season length data
Seasonal environmental conditions shape the behavior and life history of virtually all organisms. Climate change is modifying these seasonal environme...
Data from: Strong social relationships are associated with decreased longevity in a facultatively social mammal
Humans in strong social relationships are more likely to live longer because social relationships may buffer stressors and thus have protective effect...
Data from: A cost of being amicable in a hibernating marmot
Amicable social interactions can enhance fitness in many species, have negligible consequences for some, and reduce fitness in others. For yellow-bell...
R code for Demographic consequences of changing environmental periodicity
These R scripts contain the code to replicate the analyses performed in Demographic consequences of changing environmental periodicity , Ecology. Vita...
Marmot mass gain rates relate to their group’s social structure
Mass gain is an important fitness correlate for survival in highly seasonal species. While many physiological, genetic, life history, and environmenta...
21 MHC Class II DRB alleles from Microtus montanus
FASTA file of 21 MHC Class II Mimo-DRB alleles recovered from a wild population of montane vole (Microtus montanus). Samples were obtained between 200...
Maternal survival costs in an asocial mammal: Data and analysis
Maternal characteristics, social dynamics, and environmental factors can all influence reproduction and survival as well as shape trade-offs that mi...
Data from: Cumulative reproductive costs on current reproduction in a wild polytocous mammal
The cumulative cost of reproduction hypothesis predicts that reproductive costs accumulate over an individual’s reproductive lifespan. While short-ter...
Show 14 more datasets
Data from: Age, state, environment and season dependence of senescence in body mass
[No abstract entered]
Data from: Duplication and population dynamics shape historic patterns of selection and genetic variation at the major histocompatibility complex in rodents
Genetic variation at the MHC is vitally important for wildlife populations to respond to pathogen threats. Because natural populations can fluctuate g...
Relatedness matrix
This data file contains a matrix of genetic kinship for the 43 individual marmots analyzed in this study. Kinship was calculated as pair-wise relatedn...
Trait data for the 43 individuals/RNA samples
This data file contains trait information concerning the 43 individual marmots, or their blood samples (one per individual), analyzed in this study. M...
Pedigree
Pruned pedigree including only individuals with docility data and their ancestors.
Social Behavior and Population Dynamics of Yellow-bellied Marmots 1965 and Continuing after 2001.
<p>These data continue and expand upon data collected by Kenneth B. Armitage titled, " Social Behavior and Population Dynamics of Yellow-bellied Marmo...
Replication data for: Fig 6.1, Dates of capture and ages of victims for single American Badger, 03 Nov 2025
FILE DESCRIPTION Keywords: American badger, dates of capture, age of victims, Gunnison's prairie dogs Filename = Fig 6.1, Dates of capture and ages of...
Docility data
Data including docility scores, trial number (scaled), day of the year (scaled), time of the day (0: AM; 1:PM), age (0:juveniles, 1: yearlings; 2:adul...
Talus Surface & Subsurface Temperature Data from Oregon & Colorado, USA, 2011-2019
Between 2011 and 2019, temperature data loggers were buried in rocky talus patches (hereafter “sites”) potentially occupied by American pikas (Ochoton...
Talus Surface & Subsurface Temperature Data from Oregon & Colorado, USA, 2011-2019
Between 2011 and 2019, temperature data loggers were buried in rocky talus patches (hereafter “sites”) potentially occupied by American pikas (Ochoton...
MariaPaniw/Comparative-demography-project: comp_demo_scale_up
This release provides access to detailed vital-rate and population models of 41species of mammals, birds, and plants and allows to replicate all analy...
Replication data for Fig 4.1, Gunnison uterine litter size vs litter size at first juvenile emergence, 19 Sept 2025.
FILE DESCRIPTION File name = Fig 4.1, Gunnison uterine litter size vs litter size at first juvenile emergence, 19 Sept 2025. These data used for Fig 4...
Replication data for: Fig 11.1, Top right, GPDs, Colony sizes and compositions by year, 18 Dec 2025
FILE DESCRIPTION Keywords: Gunnison's prairie dog, Colony sizes and colony compositions by year File name = Fig 11.1, Top right, GPDs, Colony sizes an...
Data from: Optimal multisensory integration
Animals are often confronted with potentially informative stimuli from a variety of sensory modalities. While there is a large proximate literature de...