‘Mega-fat’ marmot captivates photographer in Kamloops, B.C., park

A marmot in Kamloops is stealing hearts and going viral after a local photographer spotted something unusual.

Marmots - commonplace and typically unremarkable - had rarely caught the attention of hobbyist photographer Taylor Borth until she discovered one so rotund in a park in Kamloops, B.C., it forced her to stop in her tracks.

“As I was rounding the corner of a pond, I gasped, because I could see this mega-fat marmot sitting there, and I just couldn’t help but take a picture,” she says.

Borth, a Kamloops house painter who practises wildlife photography in her spare time, had been wandering MacArthur Island Park the afternoon of July 6 with the hope of capturing more obscure and difficult-to-photograph creatures, like rare birds or the typically timid deer.

“Normally, the photos I’m after are the more reclusive animals, so I don’t usually go for things like marmots,” she said, equating shooting a photograph of the regular rodent as being like photographing a widely spotted Canada goose.

Yet the obese marmot was so unique in size, and so evidently happy to be photographed, it wound up being a subject more than worthy of Borth’s lens. The rodent barely moved as Borth’s shutter continued to snap, although the photographer suspects that might have been more to do with its stature than its domesticated state.

“He essentially let me get right up to him, and he just stared at me,” she said, adding how she only snapped two or three pictures of the bellied burrower before walking away, and used a long lens to ensure there was a comfortable distance between the two.

“I try not to get too close to them, because they can be a little feisty, especially if it’s near their den,” she said.

Since the photographs began circulating online wildlife fans have come forward to suggest the reason behind the marmot’s portly figure could be due to it being a pregnant female, however Borth worries that it could instead be a male, who has been overfed by the public.

“I know that they’re pretty food driven and, unfortunately, people at the park are not supposed to feed them, but they do. I’m assuming that’s probably why they are a little bit chunkier than they should be,” she said.

“They’ll bring Cheetos and the most unhealthy snacks for them to eat, and they’ll hand feed them, which you’re totally not allowed to do.”

Borth says the response to the photographs from the public has been surprising.

“I had no idea that people were going to love it as much as they did,” she told CTV News, adding that despite her initial hesitance to allow the rodents the limelight, her latest wildlife encounter led to her now favourite, most memorable shoot.

“I have it as my phone background right now,” she laughs.

According to WildsafeBC, there are four species of marmot that reside in B.C., the hoary marmot, yellow-bellied marmot, Vancouver Island marmot and the woodchuck.

All marmots are protected under the Wildlife Act, and Vancouver Island marmots are also protected under the Species at Risk Act.