Yellow-bellied Marmot Pup Grooming Its Tail Photograph

Yellow-bellied Marmot pup grooming its tail – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1/1000, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light

There are some photographs that I feel I simply have to take when given the opportunity and this photograph of a Yellow-bellied Marmot pup grooming its tail was one of those photos. The marmot pup was sitting on its bottom near its burrow when it reached down and pulled its tail up between its legs to clean it with its tongue and paws. It just looked so cute sitting there I couldn’t resist taking a nice series of images of it.

I was also thrilled that my Mom saw this marmot with its sibling and that she was able to take images of them with her cell phone. She’d seen my photos of the marmot pups at this burrow before and knew the story behind them. This marmot pup could be the pup that I had so much photographing while it climbed a fence several weeks ago because it is one of the five pups from that same burrow. These pups are growing fast, I’d say they are twice the size now than they were when I found them back in early April. We only saw two of the pups last week, the other three may have been wandering away from the burrow, I can’t say for sure.

What I can say for sure is that I think that Yellow-bellied Marmot pups are adorable and so much fun to photograph and that I was very happy that I could share these pups with my mother. Mom made it back home last night, it is going to seem strange not having her along now when I go out into the field.

Life is good.

Mia