Over the past decade, Fat Bear Week has been a viral sensation ー a bracket-style competition in which people vote for the burliest of bears photographed at Katmai National Park and Preserve in Alaska.

Now it’s time for Colorado’s own Fat Marmot Week. 

Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory is “inviting the public to celebrate one of the Rocky Mountains’ most charismatic residents while learning the science behind its annual weight gain,” according to a news release from the laboratory in Gothic, outside Crested Butte. 

Pictures of thick contestants have been posted at sites.google.com/view/fatmarmotweek ahead of Monday, when voting opens. “Final-round voting takes place Aug. 28, and the chunky champion will be crowned Aug. 29,” according to the release.

Fat Marmot Week is an extension of the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory’s Marmot Project, which has been monitoring populations and behaviors of the alpine-dwelling yellow-bellied marmots since 1962. Dan Blumstein, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at UCLA, has long co-directed the project. 

“It’s fun to root for the chunkiest marmot,” he said of Fat Marmot Week, “but behind the fun and games is a deathly serious competition against nature to pile on fat to survive the long, cold winter. And these days, with less predictable weather and wild fluctuations in snowfall, survival is not guaranteed.”

It was not for Stonehenge’s pups. Her profile on the Fat Marmot Week website ー one of a half dozen at last check ー indicates they were eaten by a badger. “Never phased, she’s been focusing on self-care since then and is gaining mass nicely!”

Similar to bears around this time of year, marmots bulk up in preparation for hibernation. 

Reads the Marmot Project website: “Once the snow melts, marmots eat. And eat. And eat. They are herbivores and eat a variety of grasses and forbes. Eating is important because they must double their mass during the year to ensure survival through the next winter. Gestation is about 32 days and mothers nurse their young in their natal burrows for about another month before the pups emerge above ground.”

They emerged this year to historically low snowpack across Colorado’s Rockies, making them more visible and vulnerable to predators. Also amid low snowpack, food sources struggled to grow.

But Fat Marmot Week must go on.

Along with Stonehenge, there’s Dawn, “a very special boy who enjoys the taste of rocks” and “watches carefully over his pups while they play.” Meanwhile, 1 “enjoys landscaping and decorating her burrow which she shares with another mother, 2.” There’s also Open Kite, “our girl boss,” and her “new man,” Citroen.

Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory has been posting more photos and information on its Instagram accounts: @rocky_mountain_bio_lab and @rmblmarmotproject.