🐾 Fat Marmot Week helped raise about $217,000 for marmot research! Read the story at Rocky Mountain PBS ↗

The scale has spoken.

DAWN

Fattest Marmot · 2026

A magnificent season of snacks, naps, rocks, and strategic mass gain.

See the bracket ↓
🏆 Your 2026 champion

DAWN
WINS.

Eight yellow-bellied marmots entered. Dawn emerged gloriously victorious. Relive the 2026 bracket — then start counting down to another season of snacks, naps, rocks, and strategic mass gain.

Countdown to 2027 ↓ Relive the Bracket
🐾 The chonk will return

Countdown to Fat Marmot Week 2027.

The official 2027 dates haven’t been announced yet, so we’re counting down to Monday, August 23 — the equivalent week on next year’s calendar.

47
WEEKS TO GO

Until the marmots return for Fat Marmot Week 2027.

Long live Dawn.
Dawn defeated G to become the 2026 Fat Marmot Week popular-vote champion.
Relive 2026 ↓

The bracket journey.

Relive Dawn’s run to the 2026 crown, from the opening round through the championship.

Fat Marmot Week 2026 Round 1 tournament bracket
Round 1: Eight contenders started the tournament on August 24.
Official Event Site ↗
Fat Marmot Week 2026 semifinal bracket showing Dan's Hat versus Dawn and Stonehenge versus G
Semifinals: Dawn advanced over Dan's Hat · G advanced over Stonehenge
Official Event Site ↗
Fat Marmot Week 2026 championship bracket showing Dawn versus G
Championship: Dawn defeated G to win the 2026 popular-vote crown.
Official 2026 Results ↗

Meet the marms.

The unusual names come from temporary, non-toxic fur marks researchers use to recognize individuals in the field.

Dan's Hat

Cool aunt

Part of Stonehenge's matriline and spending this summer putting her energy into herself.

Citroen

New guy

A recent arrival taking his role as stepdad to Open Kite's youngsters very seriously.

Open Kite

Girl boss

The RMBL townsite boss, with summer energy to spare for self-maintenance and mass gain.

Stonehenge

Big mama

Queen of the Bench colony matriline, champion caller, and resident of prime marmot real estate.

Dawn

Rock connoisseur

A longtime father who checks in on his territory, watches over pups, and apparently enjoys the taste of rocks.

1

Proud mama

A watchful mother who also makes time for landscaping and decorating the burrow she shares with another mom.

Dandelion

Shy queen

A young mother of six who can often be found soaking up sun on her favorite rock.

G

Need for speed

Short for Goblin. Loud, fast, territorial—and still somehow finding time to pack on the pounds.

Condensed from the official 2026 contender bios. Visit the official site for the full stories and updates.

Cute bracket.
Real science.

The joke works because getting fat is genuinely serious business for a true hibernator.

🌱

Summer is fuel season

Yellow-bellied marmots spend the growing season building the reserves they'll rely on through winter.

❄️

Hibernation is extreme

During true hibernation, metabolism and body temperature drop dramatically. Entering winter in good condition matters.

🔬

Decades make discovery possible

Long-term observation lets researchers connect individual lives, social behavior, survival, and environmental change.

1962
The Marmot Project

More than six decades of following individual marmots.

The RMBL Marmot Project follows marked animals from birth to death and is one of the world's longest-running studies of individually marked wild mammals. Fat Marmot Week is a very funny window into a very serious body of ecological research.

Learn About RMBL ↗

Come for the marmots. Support the science.

If Fat Marmot Week made your day, send that enthusiasm back to the people doing the field work. Visit the official event site for the 2026 results and consider supporting the Marmot Project's long-term research.

This promotional site is fan-made and is not the official voting site or an official RMBL publication.

Visit Official Fat Marmot Week ↗ Donate to the Marmot Project ↗ Read the Full Marmot Bios ↗