Vancouver Island marmot

The Vancouver Island marmot (Marmota vancouverensis) is a species of marmot found only on Vancouver Island, in British Columbia, Canada. It lives above 1,000 metres elevation in meadows that face south to west, and scarcity of suitable habitat is believed to be the main reason for its rarity. It is typical of marmots in form but is distinguished by chocolate brown fur with contrasting white patches, and an adult measures roughly 65 to 70 centimetres from nose to tail tip. It is exclusively herbivorous, hibernates for about 210 days a year, and is thought to have evolved rapidly since the Cordilleran ice sheet retreated some 10,000 years ago. After an 80 to 90 percent decline from the 1980s, only 32 adults remained in the wild by 2006, and a captive breeding and release program has since raised the wild count to just over 250 in 2021. It is one of the world's rarest mammals and a conservation symbol in British Columbia.