Thanks to NSF for help supporting our marmot project: and a disclaimer

I'm filling out my annual NSF report now and want to both thank the NSF for on-going support on the marmot projects and point out that this is our blog, and is in no way vetted by the NSF.

So, the official disclaimers are:

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant Number (DEB-1119660)

Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

The last member of the early season team Marmot!

My name is Line Cordes and I was the last member of team Marmot to arrive in late April. I am from Denmark, but have lived elsewhere for the last 12 years pursuing a career in population ecology. I completed my MSc and PhD at University of Aberdeen, Scotland developing and running an individual-based study of harbour seals, studying their demography and pupping phenology. During the completion of my PhD I took on a postdoc where I, as part of a team, investigated the impacts of seismic surveys on cetaceans. Most recently, I have moved to Fort Collins, CO with my husband who was offered a postdoc at CSU, and I have been working as a visiting scientist either volunteering or taking on contracts both within and outside of CSU to analyse data within the field of population ecology. I arrived at RMBL just in time for the emergence of the first marmots. This meant that it was a speedy introduction to identifying individuals as well as observing and documenting their social behaviour. I was assigned one particular colony called Avalanche for the first three days and enjoyed the challenge of trying to keep track of eight playful yearlings running rings around an adult male. Gothic is truly a stunning place to live and work, and what a pleasure to have it to ourselves for a few weeks before it officially opens.

Groundhogs in the news!

Groundhog terrorizes a little league team:  http://now.msn.com/groundhog-terrorizes-bridgeton-little-league

Clobert report features groundhogs in a conspiracy theory argument (it's the second segment!):  http://www.colbertnation.com/full-episodes/mon-may-6-2013-robert-caro