century was found to be the main cause of death of females, inhibiting population re-growth. By 2006, numbers had dropped to 1,000 individuals; this figure increased to around 4,000 from 2007 to 2010, when colonies stabilized and survival rates rose. In 2010, volunteers started to collect and store data about marmot populations in the park through a monitoring program. The Olympic marmot has been considered a species of least concern on the IUCN Red List since first being included in 1996. Its range is small, but 90% of its total habitat is protected due to being in Olympic National Park. The park, which holds multiple other endemic species, has been designated a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve and a World Heritage Site. State law declares that the Olympic marmot is a protected wildlife species and cannot be hunted. The species is susceptible to climate change because of their sensitivity to changed habitats. When meadows in Olympic National Park dried out, marmots there died or moved. In the long term, meadows may be superseded by forests. Climate change will alter the timing, composition, and quality of the marmots' food. Olympic marmots can become more vulnerable to predators when daytime temperatures rise too high for foraging, causing them to forage in the cooler evenings when predators are more difficult to notice. In warm winters, there is heavier predation by coyotes. Marmots become more accessible to coyotes as lower banks of snow allow coyotes to move up higher on mountains where marmots dwell, into areas which they could not usually reach during an average cold winter. Climate change could also have positive effects; a warmer climate would result in a longer growing season in which marmots could mature more quickly and thus breed more often. In 2009, this marmot was designated a state symbol of Washington: the official "endemic mammal." Governor Chris Gregoire's signing of Senate Bill 5071 was the result of a two-year effort by the fourth and fifth graders of Wedgwood Elementary School in Seattle. The students researched the marmot's habits, and answered legislators' questions to overcome initial bipartisan opposition to another state symbol. References Works cited External links Marmots Mammals of the United States Endemic fauna of Washington (state) Mammals described in 1898 Taxa named by Clinton Hart Merriam