A UCLA lab that runs one of the world’s longest studies of wild marmots has started an OnlyFans account to help keep the project alive after its funding dried up. The account, called OnlyMarms, posts near-daily photos and videos of chubby yellow-bellied marmots rather than anything the platform is usually known for, according to SFGATE. Daniel Blumstein, an ecology and evolutionary biology professor at UCLA, oversees the study and turned to the idea as support slowly shrank.
The marmot project was started in 1962, making it one of the longest-running wildlife research projects on animals living freely. Many generations of researchers, known as Marmoteers, have studied the social behavior, communication, and climate-change responses of the yellow-bellied marmots in central Colorado. Yellow-bellied marmots are a species of ground squirrel that can grow up to 20 pounds. They are very social, vocal, relatively easy to tag, and live in the same general area, all characteristics of an ideal subject for long-term study.
OnlyMarms promises unfiltered marmot content from the Rockies, featuring animals with names like Staple, Pawprint, and Cabinet. Viewers can leave monetary tips on each post, which are split between the platform and the lab. Emily Renkey, a first-year master’s student who joined the project as a volunteer in 2022, started the account and posts its content, pulling clips from the same monitoring cameras she already uses for her research.
So far, OnlyMarms has brought in a few hundred dollars, enough to buy the bait that lures marmots close enough to study. Renkey said she sometimes posts whatever will get the most “aws,” but that her favorite posts are clips of specific behaviors she can use to teach people something. The account is one of several unusual fundraising ideas the lab has tried, and Blumstein said he plans to keep pursuing them even as the lab runs on reserves he has saved over the years.
The Other Ideas: ‘Marmot Tears’ Beer and Fat Marmot Week
OnlyMarms isn’t the lab’s only creative pitch. Crested Butte’s Irwin Brewing Co. created a “Marmot Tears” IPA in partnership with the lab, and beyond being an IPA, the beer helps raise money for the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory, where the marmot program is based. Like OnlyMarms on OnlyFans, Marmot Tears is another attempt by the researchers to convert public love for their subjects into funding.
The lab has also launched Fat Marmot Week, modeled on the popular Fat Bear Week that Katmai National Park and Preserve in Alaska runs each year. The project planned to roll out contenders for the fattest marmot on Mondays and Fridays, with public voting opening on Aug. 24.
Renkey said the outreach takes time but has value on its own, arguing that engaging the public has always been part of the job. She said she doesn’t fully agree that scientists shouldn’t have to be opportunistic and creative, since that is a lot of what research is, while Blumstein maintained that scientists should be spending their time writing papers rather than dreaming up ways to fund the work.