{"id":51655,"date":"2018-04-15T06:17:48","date_gmt":"2018-04-15T12:17:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=51655"},"modified":"2026-03-06T11:51:39","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T17:51:39","slug":"terrific-fun-photographing-a-yellow-bellied-marmot-pup-climbing-a-fence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2018\/04\/15\/terrific-fun-photographing-a-yellow-bellied-marmot-pup-climbing-a-fence\/","title":{"rendered":"Terrific Fun Photographing a Yellow-bellied Marmot Pup Climbing a Fence!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Yellow-belliedYellow-bellied Marmot pup sniffing a fence – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/1000, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

There are times I feel like I have almost too much fun photographing the birds and wildlife I see and yesterday was one of those days.<\/p>\n

First, I’ll start off by saying that once again the radar\/satellite was wrong, it showed clear skies to the north and what was actually real when I got up north was heavy cloud cover, they really can’t seem to get their crap together.<\/p>\n

So the light was not great and although I did find some birds to photograph once again the most fun I had was photographing Yellow-bellied Marmot pups<\/span> <\/a>at and near their burrow.<\/p>\n

The interesting thing was that there are six, not five, marmot pups at that burrow, I was surprised when I saw all six outside the burrow on the rocks at the same time because marmots usually only have 3 to 5 pups.<\/p>\n

The pups are moving further away from the burrow than they had when last I saw them and are getting more adventurous as they grow up I suspect. They are still very cautious however and scramble back to the burrow lickety-split when they see or sense danger.<\/p>\n

One of the Yellow-bellied Marmot pups I photographed yesterday morning moved away from the burrow, crawled under a fence on the hill and stood on top of a rock just on the other side of the fence.<\/p>\n

What happened next I wouldn’t have believed if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes. The marmot pup stood up on the rock and leaned on the fence with its paws and appeared to be sniffing the rusty wire the fence is made of.<\/p>\n

\"Yellow-belliedYellow-bellied Marmot pup looking up at the top of a fence – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/1250, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

Then the marmot pup looked up towards the top of the fence after moving one of its paws to a higher wire. At the time I thought it was simply scanning the sky. Boy, was I in for a surprise!<\/p>\n

\"Yellow-belliedYellow-bellied Marmot reaching up higher on the fence – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/1250, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

The Yellow-bellied Marmot pup stretched its body and grabbed the next higher wire on the fence while standing on the tips of its toes, reaching, reaching…<\/p>\n

\"Yellow-belliedYellow-bellied Marmot pup climbing a fence – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/1250, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

And lifted its body from the ground with a look of intense concentration on its face with its hind feet dangling in the air! It looked to me like this Yellow-bellied Marmot pup was doing Cross Fit. This is a move my son who is active in Cross Fit tells me is called a “bar muscle up”.<\/p>\n

By then I was laughing so hard that it was hard to maintain focus on the marmot pup while it was hanging there on the fence.<\/p>\n

Cross Fit Yellow-bellied Marmot Pup!<\/strong><\/h2>\n

\"Yellow-belliedYellow-bellied Marmot pup grasping a fence – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/1250, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

The light could have been better dear photography Goddess! Seriously. Just a little brighter would have been marvelous.<\/p>\n

I fired my shutter button in a very long burst hoping that I wouldn’t clip toes, tips of the tail or its cute little nose and while I did in a few images for most of the long burst I had the whole body of the marmot pup in the frames.<\/p>\n

Right after this photo was taken the marmot pup seemed to let go of the fence and it tumbled to the ground, unfortunately the three photos I got of that action were a blurry mess.<\/p>\n

\"Yellow-belliedYellow-bellied Marmot pup attempting to climb the fence again – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/1600, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

The Yellow-bellied Marmot pup was fine after it tumbled to the ground, in fact it went back to the top of the rock, put one paw on the fence and looked like it was going to try to climb up it again.<\/p>\n

That was until a noisy, annoying pickup truck rumbled up the road and got all six of the pups running to the safety of their burrow. When they came back out the pup didn’t go back to try climbing the fence again.<\/p>\n

I have never, ever seen a Yellow-bellied Marmot, adult or pup, try to climb a fence before yesterday and I may never see this kind of behavior again.<\/p>\n

Friend Rick Wright told me that he has woodchucks that climb the chain link fence in his yard back East but hasn’t seen this kind of behavior anywhere else either.<\/p>\n

You just never know what you might see when out photographing birds and wildlife but if you go out often enough and are prepared for the unexpected you might just get a big surprise. I sure did yesterday with this funny and adventurous little Yellow-bellied Marmot<\/span><\/a> pup.<\/p>\n

Life is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

Click here<\/span><\/a> to see more of my Yellow-bellied Marmot photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It looked to me like this Yellow-bellied Marmot pup was doing CrossFit, a move my son who is active in CrossFit tells me is called a “bar muscle up”. By then I was laughing so hard that it was hard to maintain focus on the marmot pup while it was hanging there on the fence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":171350,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1148,26,231],"tags":[5772,5873,6453,5774,4098,3830,8305,4157,6454,1632,5854,2241,4984,8301,8300,11852,5668,9593,102,4029],"class_list":["post-51655","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-box-elder-county-utah","category-utah","category-yellow-bellied-marmots","tag-baby","tag-climbing","tag-crossfit","tag-cute","tag-desert","tag-fence","tag-fun","tag-funny","tag-hanging","tag-mammals","tag-marmot","tag-marmota-flaviventris","tag-marmots","tag-photograph","tag-photographing","tag-ranchlands","tag-rusty","tag-rusty-fence","tag-wildlife","tag-yellow-bellied-marmot"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/yellow-bellied-marmot-fence-mia-mcpherson-9270.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-dr9","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":46855,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2017\/05\/19\/yellow-bellied-marmot-pups-in-northern-utah\/","url_meta":{"origin":51655,"position":0},"title":"Yellow-bellied Marmot Pups in Northern Utah","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"May 19, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"I have been very successful spotting Yellow-bellied Marmots and their pups the past few weeks in northern Utah and it has been a delight for me to photograph and observe them.","rel":"","context":"In "Box Elder County"","block_context":{"text":"Box Elder County","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/box-elder-county-utah\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Yellow-bellied Marmot pup nibbling on greens, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/yellow-bellied-marmot-pup-mia-mcpherson-2778.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/yellow-bellied-marmot-pup-mia-mcpherson-2778.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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Spring","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"March 18, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"The Yellow-bellied Marmot pup spent most of its time exploring the area around its burrow, climbing up and down the rocks, sitting, standing, scratching its fur, looking around and being a marmot pup in the wild where they belong.","rel":"","context":"In "Box Elder County"","block_context":{"text":"Box Elder County","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/box-elder-county-utah\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Yellow-bellied Marmot pup sitting on rocks near its burrow, Box Elder County, 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Northern Utah","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"May 8, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Photographing Yellow-bellied Marmot pups have delighted me this spring and since they don't stay little for long I have taken photos of them every time I have had the chance.","rel":"","context":"In "Box Elder County"","block_context":{"text":"Box Elder County","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/box-elder-county-utah\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Spring Yellow-bellied Marmot pup, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/yellow-bellied-marmot-pup-mia-mcpherson-6060.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/yellow-bellied-marmot-pup-mia-mcpherson-6060.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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