No mere random rodent, this marmot species’ triumphant return is captured in the beautiful photographs of Catherine Babault.
The photographs of red squirrels, Roosevelt Eld, Western Toad and Ruffled Grouse provide a rich sense, taken together with the images of spreading phlox, lupine, purple pea vine, scarlet paintbrush harsh paintbrush, cow parsnip, Sitka valerian, fireweed and bracken ferns, of the marmot’s home ecosystem.
Like Babault’s earlier book, this work is a feast for the eyes. The close-up images of marmots in the wild are charming, and the author’s keen artist’s eye has captured images of the steep mountain ridges, meadows and screes where the elusive rodents live that are delicate and colourful, evoking in their often fog-softened, flower-dotted beauty the works of the French Impressionists. These haunting images have been captured on Babault’s long hikes in the Vancouver Island mountains.
But being charming or living in wild beauty do not guarantee species survival in the end times of the Anthropocene. Human-caused habitat disruption had nearly exterminated the Vancouver Island Marmot by 2003, when an estimated remnant of only 23 animals still roamed the Island. Like so many other species crowded or hunted or poisoned out of existence, Marmota vancouverensis was on its way out two decades ago.
But for once, the precipitous decline toward extinction was reversed. Essays included in this lovely book detail how scientists and nature lovers have collaborated to breed marmots in captivity and reintroduce them to the wild. Currently devoted marmot watchers have identified 26 colonies and a wild population of around 250. The Vancouver Island Marmot is coming back! Babault’s book celebrates that return, and readers will be glad to share her joy.
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