Marmot Switzerland: Ice age relic and mass shooting

The Alpine marmot is an Ice Age survivor and the third-largest rodent in Europe. It lives in family groups, hibernates for up to seven months and warns its colony of danger with shrill whistles. Tourists love it. Recreational hunters shoot it in their thousands: in 2025, 4,585 marmots were killed in Switzerland in the “kill” category and a further 1,248 in the special cull, 2,997 and 1,228 of them respectively in Grisons alone (Swiss Hunting Statistics 2025). Climate change is already measurably affecting this high-mountain dweller. Even so, in Grisons every recreational hunter may shoot eight marmots during the high hunt, and more with an exemption permit from the wildlife wardens.

Profile

The Alpine marmot (Marmota marmota), also known in Switzerland as “Mungg” or “Murmunda”, belongs to the squirrel family (Sciuridae) and, after the beaver and the porcupine, is the third-largest rodent in Europe. It reaches a body length of 40 to 60 centimetres (excluding the tail) and a weight of 3 to 8 kilograms, with its weight fluctuating by up to 50 per cent between summer and winter. In autumn, before hibernation, adult animals weigh the most. The fur is grey-brown to yellow-brown on top, with a lighter underside. The marmot has powerful digging paws, short ears and large, dark eyes.

Biology and Social Structure

The marmot is one of the most social rodents in the Alps. It lives in family groups of up to 20 individuals, made up of a dominant parental pair, the young of the current year and the offspring of previous years (Wikipedia, Alpine marmot). The young only reach sexual maturity in their third year and remain in the family group until then, sometimes longer. This cohesion has a vital purpose: during hibernation, family members keep each other warm, which lowers energy consumption and increases the chances of survival. Lone animals or small groups have markedly lower survival rates.

Marmots are strictly diurnal. They cannot see at night and therefore depend on daylight hours to feed. When danger threatens, they warn their colony with a piercing whistle. A single, long whistle signals a threat from the air (golden eagle); a series of short whistles signals ground-based dangers (fox, humans) (Wikipedia, Alpine marmot).

Hibernation: six to seven months on a low flame

The marmot's hibernation is one of the most extreme physiological feats among European mammals. From the end of September until March or April, the animals remain in their winter burrows, which can be up to seven metres deep. Their body temperature drops from 39 to around 7 degrees Celsius, their heartbeat falls from 100 to 2 or 3 beats per minute, and the pauses between breaths stretch to several minutes (SAC, Fatale Siesta). During this time the animals lose up to 50 per cent of their body weight. Before falling asleep, they seal all entrances to their burrow from the inside with earth, stones and nesting material.

This survival strategy only works if the animals can build up sufficient fat reserves in summer. It is precisely here that climate change becomes a problem.

Food

Marmots are almost exclusively vegetarian. They eat grasses, herbs, flowers, leaves, roots and seeds. Preferred food plants include alpine clover (Trifolium alpinum) and alpine lovage (Ligusticum mutellina), which are particularly rich in omega-6 fatty acids. Professor Walter Arnold of the University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna has shown that marmots use these plants to build a special storage fat, which allows them to tolerate lower body temperatures during hibernation and lose less weight (SAC, Fatale Siesta). Each day they must take in around 500 grams of food, roughly 10 per cent of their body weight. The window for doing so is short: only five months of the year are available for feeding.

Habitat: A high mountain environment under pressure

An Ice Age relic in a shrinking habitat

The marmot is a typical relic of the Ice Age. During the Pleistocene it inhabited the European lowlands. As the climate warmed after the last Ice Age, it retreated to the high altitudes of the Alps. Today it lives on alpine grassland between roughly 1,400 and 3,000 metres above sea level, at least 400 metres above the tree line (SAC, Fatale Siesta; Wikipedia). In the canton of Grisons, the main habitat of the marmot in Switzerland, around 3,000 square kilometres of alpine grassland are available (Südostschweiz, 2017).

Climate change as an existential threat

Climate change hits the marmot in two ways. First: summer heat. Marmots have no sweat glands and suffer heat stress at temperatures from as low as 20 degrees Celsius (SAC, Fatale Siesta; Spektrum der Wissenschaft, 2024). On hot days they spend ever longer in their cool burrows, which shortens the time available for feeding. The consequence: smaller fat reserves before hibernation. Less fat means a higher risk of not surviving the six-month hibernation.

Second: the loss of snow insulation. The snowfall season in the Alps has shifted. In the past, a continuous snow cover from November was the rule. Today the ground often remains snow-free until the turn of the year. Ground without an insulating blanket of snow cools down more quickly. Marmots in deep hibernation then have to produce more body heat, which costs additional energy and fat reserves (Spektrum der Wissenschaft, 2024; Der Pragmaticus, 2024).

Professor Walter Arnold, who has studied marmots in the Avers valley (GR) for years, has found that, because of the heat, the animals build up ever smaller fat reserves before hibernation (SAC, Fatale Siesta). The Austrian Animal Welfare Association warns: “Alpine marmots are finding it increasingly difficult to adapt to environmental change. An animal that is already struggling to survive must not be made to suffer further from recreational hunting” (Österreichischer Tierschutzverein, 2026).

A genome analysis also shows that the Alpine marmot has one of the lowest levels of genetic diversity of any wild mammal; this diversity was lost during the last Ice Age and has not recovered since (Gossmann et al. 2019, Current Biology). Isolated populations are more susceptible to disease and less able to adapt to environmental change. And recreational hunting changes the behaviour of the animals: in the Italian Alps, it was hunting alone, not recreational use of the area, that influenced marmots' tolerance of human disturbance (Zenth et al. 2025, Wildlife Biology; Hunting Fact Check).

More on this: Dossier: Recreational hunting and biodiversity

Hunting: mass killing as tradition

Legal situation

Under the Federal Act on Hunting (JSG, Art. 5 para. 1), the marmot is a huntable species. It is hunted mainly during the high hunt in the licence hunting cantons. The federal closed season runs from 16 October to 31 August (Art. 5 para. 1 lit. g JSG), so marmots may only be hunted in September and the first half of October. In Grisons, every recreational hunter may kill eight marmots during the 21-day high hunt “without restrictions regarding age and sex” (Art. 48 Hunting Operating Regulations 2026). For marmots “that cause damage in meadows and pastures”, the wildlife wardens may grant exemptions for the killing of more than eight animals (Art. 49). Since 2026, anyone who has killed three or more marmots may transport the animals away by motor vehicle (Art. 8e). In Germany, the marmot is formally a huntable species but has a year-round closed season and is in practice not hunted.

The scale of the killing

Marmot kill figures in Switzerland are exceptionally high. According to the Federal Hunting Statistics, 52,393 marmots were killed nationwide in the “kill” category between 2016 and 2025, and a further 8,160 in special kills, averaging over 6,000 animals per year. The bag fell from 8,313 animals (2009) to 4,585 (2025), while special kills rose from 679 (2016) to 1,248 (2025). Around two thirds of kills occur in Grisons (2016 to 2025: 36,819 animals, 2025: 2,997), plus 7,908 special kills there over ten years. In Valais, 555 marmots were killed in 2025 (Swiss Hunting Statistics 2025). BirdLife Switzerland had already commented on the figures earlier: “Why 5,735 marmots are being shot is hard to understand” (BirdLife Schweiz, Jagdstatistik).

In the war years of 1944 and 1945, over 11,000 marmots per year were shot in Grisons and over 16,000 across Switzerland (Federal Hunting Statistics). This historical dimension shows that marmot hunting originated in the procurement of food in times of need. Those times of need are over. Today, the marmot is hunted out of tradition and as a leisure pursuit.

No reasonable justification

Strictly speaking, the marmot causes no wildlife damage to agricultural crops. It lives above the tree line, where neither arable farming nor fruit growing takes place. The only conflict regularly cited concerns alpine pastures: lambs can fall into marmot burrows and break their legs, and farmers stumble over the holes. In Valais, isolated cases have been documented in which farmers smoked out marmot burrows and filled them in (Südostschweiz, 2017). These conflicts are real, but they are locally limited and can be resolved with simple measures (marking the burrows, fencing off critical spots).

Shooting thousands of marmots every year because lambs occasionally fall into burrows is disproportionate. Marmot hunting is not damage prevention but folkloric hunting in the high mountains, comparable to the hunting of mountain hares and ptarmigan.

Ecological significance: a keystone species of alpine ecosystems

Food source for the golden eagle

The marmot is the golden eagle's most important prey species in the Alps. A single pair of golden eagles takes up to 70 marmots during the breeding season; these make up as much as 80 per cent of their prey (Wikipedia, Alpine marmot). Without marmots, the golden eagle would not be able to survive in large parts of the Alps. Ravens, pine martens and red foxes also prey on the young. The marmot is thus a keystone species that sustains an entire chain of predators in the alpine ecosystem.

Ecosystem engineer

The burrowing activity of the marmot has far-reaching effects on the alpine landscape. Its extensive burrow systems aerate the soil, promote the mixing of soil layers and create microhabitats for insects, reptiles and plants. The spoil from the burrows forms small mounds that serve as heat stores and germination sites for pioneer plants. Abandoned burrows are used as shelter by other species. The marmot is thus an ecosystem engineer whose activity promotes alpine biodiversity.

What needs to change

Drastic reduction in kill figures: Killing over 5,000 marmots every year cannot be justified in view of increasing climate pressure. The kill quotas per licence (eight animals, more with an exemption permit) have no basis in wildlife biology. The cantons must drastically reduce the kill quotas and abolish the exemption permits.
Science-based monitoring: There are no reliable total population figures for the marmot in Switzerland. Recreational hunters shoot from an 'undefined population' (Südostschweiz, 2017). National monitoring based on standardised burrow counts is a prerequisite for any serious hunting planning.
Taking climate change into account in hunting planning: Kill quotas must take increasing climate stress into account. If a species is already under pressure from heat stress, shortened feeding periods and reduced fat reserves, it must not be further decimated by mass killing.
Protecting alpine pastures from scrub encroachment: The afforestation of abandoned alpine pastures reduces the marmot's habitat. Alpine pastoral farming must be preserved and promoted, not only for agricultural reasons but also for nature conservation reasons.
Limiting recreational disturbance: Hikers who disturb marmots shorten their feeding time and reduce their fat reserves. Wildlife quiet zones in core marmot areas, combined with compulsory leads for dogs and requirements to stay on paths, are urgently needed.
Ban on marmot hunting trips as a leisure activity: In Austria, organised marmot hunting trips are marketed as experience packages. The Austrian Animal Welfare Association considers this 'indefensible'. This kind of commercialisation of the killing of wild animals must not take hold in Switzerland.

Talking points

“The marmot is not endangered and can therefore be hunted.” The fact that a species is not currently on the Red List does not mean that hunting it is sensible or necessary. Climate change is measurably affecting the marmot: reduced fat reserves, shortened feeding periods, poorer snow insulation in winter. A genome analysis (Gossmann et al. 2019) shows one of the lowest levels of genetic diversity of any wild mammal, which limits its ability to adapt. The Red List of mammals (FOEN 2022) classes the marmot as 'least concern' (LC), relying in part on hunting statistics; no nationwide population count exists.

“Marmot hunting has a long tradition in Grisons.” Tradition is no argument for mass killings. During the war years, more than 11,000 marmots a year were shot in Grisons because the population needed food. That emergency has not existed for over 80 years. Today, thousands of marmots are shot because the quotas allow it. BirdLife Switzerland rightly asks: “Why are 5,735 marmots being shot?” The answer is: because it can be done, not because it has to be.

“Marmots cause damage on alpine pastures because lambs fall into their burrows.” Isolated incidents do not justify the mass killing of thousands of animals across entire regions. The affected spots can be marked, fenced off or avoided. The marmot has lived on alpine meadows since the Ice Age, long before sheep grazed there. Its right to its burrows is older than any alpine farming.

“Marmots are common; killing more than 5,000 animals a year does not harm the population.” Nobody knows how large the population actually is. The cantonal hunting administrator of Grisons himself speaks of an “undefined population”. Killing on this scale without population figures is not sustainable wildlife management but flying blind. On top of this, climate change increases mortality during hibernation and lowers the reproduction rate, which amplifies the cumulative effects of hunting.

“The marmot is used as game meat, so the kill serves a purpose.” Use as game meat applies to only a small share of the kills and does nothing to change the lack of any wildlife-biological necessity for the mass removal. Killing an animal is not justified by eating it afterwards. The reasonable ground must exist before the kill, not after it.

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sources

FOEN, Federal Hunting Statistics: Marmot, kills and special kills 1933–2025, accessed on 21.10.2026 (jagdstatistik.ch)
Canton of Grisons: Ordinance on the Conduct of Hunting (Hunting Regulations, BR 740.025), 2026 version, Art. 8e, 48 and 49 (gr-lex.gr.ch)
FOEN/info fauna (2022): Red List of Mammals (excluding bats)
Gossmann, T. I. et al. (2019): Ice-Age Climate Adaptations Trap the Alpine Marmot in a State of Low Genetic Diversity. Current Biology 29: 1712–1720
Zenth, F. et al. (2025): Hunting, but not outdoor recreation, modulates behavioural tolerance to human disturbance in Alpine marmots. Wildlife Biology 2025: e01397
Wikipedia: Alpine marmot (Marmota marmota)
BirdLife Switzerland: The Current Hunting Statistics and the Revised Hunting Act (birdlife.ch)
Südostschweiz (2017): Every year, Grisons hunters shoot 3,000 to 6,000 marmots
SAC Swiss Alpine Club: Fatal siesta, marmots and climate change (sac-cas.ch)
Spektrum der Wissenschaft (2024): Climate change is making it too hot for marmots
Der Pragmaticus (2024): The last summers of the marmots
Austrian Animal Welfare Association (2026): The Alpine marmot, a quiet survivor
Arnold, W. et al.: Research Institute of Wildlife Ecology, University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna (long-term marmot studies, Avers/GR)
EU research project ARC (2016): Adaptive responses to climate change, 22-year study on marmots
Stadtwildtiere Deutschland: Species profile of the Alpine marmot
Federal Act on Hunting and the Protection of Wild Mammals and Birds (JSG, SR 922.0)

Our Standard

The marmot is the animal that brings the Alps to life. Its whistle is as much a part of the soundscape of the high mountains as the ringing of cowbells. It is a tourist attraction, a postcard motif and a crowd-pleaser. At the same time, thousands of them are shot in Switzerland, year after year, without the public taking any notice. In the canton of Grisons, an individual recreational hunter may kill eight marmots per hunting season, and more with an exemption permit from the wildlife wardens. These quotas date from a time when marmots served as a source of food. Today they are the relic of a folklore hunt that has no basis in either wildlife biology or ethics. Climate change is already measurably affecting the marmot. Heat shortens its foraging time, the lack of insulating snow cover endangers its hibernation, and genetic impoverishment reduces its capacity to adapt. Shooting thousands of animals a year in this situation, from a population that nobody counts, is the opposite of wildlife management. It is a waste of resources disguised as tradition. This dossier is updated continuously as new figures, studies or political developments require.

More on the topic of recreational hunting: in our hunting dossier we bring together fact checks, analyses and background reports.