Marmota olympus
Silhouette: T. Michael Keesey · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~80% in a week >90%
The Olympic marmot (Marmota olympus) is a rodent in the squirrel family, Sciuridae. It occurs only in the U.S. state of Washington, at the middle elevations of the Olympic Peninsula. The closest relatives of this species are the hoary marmot and the Vancouver Island marmot. In 2009, it was declared the official endemic mammal of Washington state.
This marmot is about the size of a domestic cat, typically weighing about 8 kg (18 lb) in summer. The species shows the greatest sexual dimorphism found in marmots, with adult males weighing on average 23% more than females. It can be identified by a wide head, small eyes and ears, stubby legs, and a long, bushy tail. Its sharp, rounded claws aid in digging burrows. The coat color changes with the season and with age, but an adult marmot's coat is brown all over with small white areas for most of the year.
The species has a diet consisting mainly of a variety of meadow flora, including dry grasses, which it also uses as bedding in burrows. It is preyed on by various terrestrial mammals and avian raptors, but its main predator today is the coyote. However, the complex system of communication through whistling means most marmots remain safe for their entire life. The Olympic marmot is rated a species of the least concern on the IUCN Red List. It is protected by law in the Olympic National Park, which contains most of its habitat.
The burrows of this marmot are made in colonies, which are found in various mountain locations and differ in size. A colony may contain as few as one marmot family or multiple families with up to 40 marmots. Olympic marmots are very sociable animals which often engage in play fighting and vocalize four different whistles to communicate. During hibernation, which begins in September, they are in a deep sleep and do not eat, causing them to lose half their body mass. Adults emerge in May and their young in June. Female marmots reach sexual maturity at three years of age and produce litters of 1–6 young every other mating season. Wikipedia →
Recording0:04
United States · 2021
© Steve Hampton · iNaturalist · CC BY-NC 4.0
Recording0:04
United States · 2018
© Michael Stein · iNaturalist · CC BY-NC 4.0
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Olympic National Park | 🇺🇸 United States |
More parks will be added in future updates.
Likely
About 40% of wildlife watchers report an Olympic Marmot sighting in Olympic National Park on a given day, based on 510 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 3rd most-seen of the 27 mammals we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 80%, and over a week to over 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
June to August
In those months about 50% of wildlife watchers report an Olympic Marmot in Olympic National Park on a given day, against under 5% in October to March, the lowest months. Those are among Olympic National Park's driest months, with about 55 mm of rain a month against 370 mm in November.
Between 11 am and 2 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Olympic Marmot sightings with a recorded time, and about 8 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Only Olympic National Park, in our data
Olympic National Park is the only park on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Olympic Marmot sightings: about 40% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
Same family: Sciuridae
The closest relatives of the Olympic Marmot that you can see in Olympic National Park (family Sciuridae, Squirrels) are Douglas' Squirrel (about 40%), Yellow-pine Chipmunk (about 30%) and Townsend's Chipmunk (about 20%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Olympic Marmot is recorded against all the mammals logged in Olympic National Park (510 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
