Brief by Central Staff
Wildlife – February 2003 – Colorado Central Magazine
As almost everyone knows, Feb. 2 is Groundhog Day. Folklore has it that if the critter emerges from his burrow and sees his shadow (which means it’s a sunny day), then there will be six more weeks of winter.
We don’t have groundhogs here, but we do have a close relative: the yellow-bellied marmot, which abides at elevations up to 13,500 feet and typically hibernates from September until April or May. (There’s plenty more about marmots in our July, 2002, edition.)
However, Colorado’s marmots are becoming earlier risers, according to a study which found that in the Elk Range between Aspen and Crested Butte, they’re emerging from hibernation more than three weeks earlier than they did in 1990.
A story about this in the Jan. 2 Rocky Mountain News also reported that robins are arriving two weeks earlier than they did a few years ago.
“Working independently, two research teams reviewed hundreds of published papers that tracked changes in the range and behavior of plant and animal species believed caused by human-driven global warming,” reports the newspaper.
“Both teams concluded that they had found the ‘fingerprint’ of global warming on hundreds of species, from insects to birds and mammals, even after taking into account other possible causes, such as habitat loss.”
“Other scientists said the two studies add another piece of evidence — along with retreating glaciers, warming oceans, and shrinking snow cover — that global warming is impacting the earth.”
