A 13-Pound Marmot Named Dawn Just Won Fat Marmot Week and Honestly We Need This

Dawn the Chonk: A Champion for Our Times

Dawn didn't just win Fat Marmot Week on vibes. According to the Guardian, the six-year-old marmot pulled off a sweep, winning both the mass-gain competition and the public popular vote. Professor Julien Martin of the University of Ottawa, who co-leads the marmot project, called Dawn "humongous" for the species. Six kilograms. That is a 13.2-pound wild rodent and Dawn earned every ounce of it.

NPR reports that Dawn gained 4.5 pounds over the course of August alone, bringing that total weight to roughly 13 pounds. To be clear: this marmot almost doubled in size over one summer, which is exactly what yellow-bellied marmots are supposed to do before spending five months hibernating underground. Dawn is not failing at being a marmot. Dawn is excelling at it.

The competition pitted eight marmots against each other: Dawn, G, Dan's Hat, Citroen, Open Kite, 1, Dandelion, and Stonehenge. Yes, one of the competitors is simply named 1. Science contains multitudes. Voting ran from August 24 through August 29, and according to the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory's organizers, "all of the competitors are winners in our hearts." That is genuinely the most wholesome sentence published anywhere on the internet this week.

What Fat Marmot Week Actually Is and Why It Exists

Fat Marmot Week was modeled directly on Alaska's Fat Bear Week, which NPR notes draws more than a million votes annually for the chonkiest brown bear in Katmai National Park. The Marmot Project took the formula and applied it to yellow-bellied marmots, which the Guardian reports roughly double their body weight every summer before hibernating for about five months. Colorado Parks and Wildlife notes that marmots can lose up to half their body weight during hibernation, so this isn't cute competitive eating. It is survival.

The Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory's Marmot Project has been running continuously since 1962, making it one of the longest-running studies of individually tagged wild mammals anywhere in the world. UCLA professor Dan Blumstein, who runs the project, told NPR's Ayesha Rascoe that studies like this are what let scientists understand how animals respond to a changing environment. Sixty-four years of data. Irreplaceable longitudinal research on how a keystone alpine species is coping with climate shifts. Which brings us to the part of this story that is not cute.

The OnlyFans Part, Because of Course There's an OnlyFans Part

The reason Fat Marmot Week exists at all is that the federal government stopped funding the science behind it. The Guardian reports that researchers behind the 64-year marmot study have been fighting to keep the project alive amid federal science funding cuts, which is a polite way of saying the Trump administration gutted research budgets and scientists are now doing rodent content creation to pay for legitimate ecological work.

Blumstein opened an OnlyFans account called OnlyMarms, promising subscribers "uncensored marmot content." NPR notes that at the start of August, the account had generated about $4,000. The Guardian reports that across OnlyFans subscriptions, outside donations, and a marmot-themed cryptocurrency created by online supporters, the total fundraising has now crossed $100,000. The marmot cryptocurrency is real. Someone made a marmot cryptocurrency. We are living inside a fever dream, but at least the marmots are getting fed.

Blumstein was clear-eyed with NPR about what comes next. "We have some funding for next year, but after that, it's looking very dire," he said. Sixty-four years of scientific continuity, and the plan to save it currently involves OnlyFans subscriptions and the goodwill of people who think Dawn the marmot is hilarious. Which, to be fair, she is.

Stonehenge Deserves a Mention

NPR reports that the Weekend Edition staff ran their own informal vote and picked Stonehenge, a female marmot described as a resilient mother who lost her litter to a hungry badger earlier this year. Stonehenge did not win. But Stonehenge competed anyway, put on weight anyway, and will hibernate and probably compete again in Fat Marmot Week 2027. The organizers have confirmed another competition is planned for next year.

There is something genuinely moving about a marmot named Stonehenge who lost her babies to a badger and still showed up to get fat on camera for science. It's either a metaphor for the American research community right now or just a very tough marmot. Possibly both.

The Competition Results, by the Numbers

More than 23,000 votes were cast during the week-long tournament, according to the Guardian. Dawn won both categories: most weight gained during August and most votes from the public. The competition ran August 24 through August 29, 2026, at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory in Colorado.

Dawn's final weight was approximately 13.2 pounds, which Professor Martin described as one of the heaviest animals they have ever measured in this study. For context: a healthy house cat weighs about 10 pounds. Dawn the marmot is heavier than your cat and has done it through sheer ecological discipline and access to alpine wildflowers.