Vancouver Island COSEWIC assessment and status report: chapter 4
Distribution
Global range
Marmota vancouverensis is endemic to Vancouver Island, Canada.
Canadian range
Apart from captive animals (Bryant 2005), Marmota vancouverensis is restricted to Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada (Nagorsen 1987, 2005).
Before reintroductions began in 2003, Vancouver Island marmots occurred only on five mountains in the Nanaimo Lakes region of central Vancouver Island, and on Mount Washington, approximately 95 km to the northwest (Figure 2). If all occurrences are treated as a single "extent of occurrence", the resulting minimum convex polygon equals approximately 840 km² (B.C. Conservation Data Centre 2006).
Records based on tagging (Bryant 1990, 1998), radio-telemetry (Bryant and Page 2005) and DNA analysis (Kruckenhauser et al. 2007) suggest that the colonies in the Nanaimo Lakes region were connected through occasional dispersal movements. However, genetic results suggest that marmots on Mount Washington have been isolated for at least several generations. Based on a 1x1 km grid around known hibernacula, the area of occupancy is <22 km².
Figure 2. Present and historical distribution of Vancouver Island marmots. Inactive sites illustrate colony records from 1896-2006. Solitary marmots likely represent dispersing individuals.
Page details
- Date modified: