The publicity and conservation campaign for the Vancouver Island marmot will have to be stepped up immediately, according to Island naturalists who are angered and disgusted at a recent case of vandalism, which caused the death of at least one of these seriously endangered animals.
Dave Routledge of Nanaimo, field co-ordinator for the summer survey project on the Vancouver Island marmot, paid a recent visit to one of the known marmot colonies on a mid-Island mountain. There he found a dead marmot, with an autopsy showing it died from a bullet wound.
"I drove up and parked in the usual place and immediately saw signs of human disturbance. Lots of beer bottles and wine bottles strewn all over the alpine slopes and under bushes. They looked like they'd been left there pretty recently, judging by the fresh labels," he recalled.
"I then started noticing spent shotgun cartridges scattered around the slope and colony site along with tin cans full of bullet holes. The grassy, alpine slopes of the colony were badly torn up with numerous four-wheel-drive tracks."
"Alpine slopes are very fragile environments, and that kind of destruction by vehicles will most likely cause excessive erosion this winter and severe plant and wildflower damage in the spring. "Then came the worst of all -- a dead marmot on the talus-scree area just below the bluffs. ...
"There were fresh, human footprints made by studded, hobnailed boots around the carcass, and there were no other signs present in the bare soil nearby."
