Botanical Glossary - Home

Yellow-bellied Marmot - shows no fear perched at the entrance to his burrow in the surface layer of garbage in the Glenmore Landfill.

The Yellow-bellied Marmot has a heavy body (about 18 to 27 inches long with yellowish brown to tan belly, light to dark brown feet, whitish spots between eyes and buff or tan patches below the ears to shoulders. Similar to the woodchuck in color, and habits, the Marmot lives in burrowed dens in the hillside, under a rockpile, crevice or rock shelter - feeding on green vegetation of many varieties to put on extra weight for fall when the Marmot hibernates until February or March. A litter of 3 to 5 are born in March or April. The Marmots are host for the tick that carries Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever.

This landfill area used to be an embarrassment to the City of Kelowna (I remember the area as being something so terrible stinky that I would hold my breath as we scooted by in the car - going from Kelowna to Vernon). These days, the folks that live in nearby Glenmore have pressured the City to revamp the stinky landfill to make it more environmentally friendly.

The first thing I noticed was almost no smelly garbage visible, and no eye stinging, unbearable stink. Secondly, the whole area has been cleaned up and re-landscaped to make the pond area appealing to the eye. With this stunning change in mind, I entered the dump area with my father, to photograph wildlife. We parked over by the recycling section of the facility (the City doesn't mind folks photographing, but they do ask that photographers sign a liability waiver before entering).

Presently, there are three families of Yellow-bellied Marmots (with half a dozen pups) living in the top layer of the landfill. These little mammals are used to people being around, so we were able to get within fifteen feet to get an excellent photo opportunity.