Vancouver Island Marmot is an endangered species and 1 of only 5 solely Canadian endemic species. Their current wild population numbers are drastically low but successful captive breeding efforts in the past 3 decades has given hope. However, this growth in marmots have been limited to breeding at protected sites. The ultimate goal of the recovery programs is to produce a self-sustaining wild marmot population. This leads to the question is where would be the most sustainable sites for these marmots and what are the biggest challenges for reintroduction? Many have conducted research to answer this question yet many have neglected a key factor.
Speculation on Vancouver Island Marmot’s decline historically assumed decline mostly attributed to anthropogenic habitation loss. While mostly true as clear cutting and rising climates have diminished essential flora and habitat essential to the marmots, a greater threat lures making reintroduction of marmots into the wild much more difficult.
Radio-telemetry research conducted from 1992-2005 showed that 24 out of 29 (83%) of marmots deaths after reintroduction were linked to predation. Top culprits are…
Cougars (Felis concolor),
Golden Eagles (Aquila chrysaetos)
Grey Wolves (Canis lupus)
It is this research on the significant predation of reintroduced marmots that we believe warrants a thorough analysis. If these predator species are the largest obstacle to establishing strong, independent Vancouver Island Marmot wild populations, than we need to plan reintroduction sites accordingly. As such, our research aims to use 4 separate multi-criteria analysis (1 for each predator and 1 for all the predators combined) to map their potential suitabilities across Vancouver Island. Then after overlaying their suitability maps, we will weight overlays accordingly to model the most significant zones of potential predation on the Vancouver Island Marmot.