{"id":52318,"date":"2018-05-28T05:01:22","date_gmt":"2018-05-28T11:01:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=52318"},"modified":"2026-03-06T14:08:30","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T20:08:30","slug":"yellow-bellied-marmot-pup-grooming-its-tail-photograph","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2018\/05\/28\/yellow-bellied-marmot-pup-grooming-its-tail-photograph\/","title":{"rendered":"Yellow-bellied Marmot Pup Grooming Its Tail Photograph"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazyload aligncenter wp-image-171379 size-full\" title=\"Yellow-bellied Marmot pup grooming its tail, Box Elder County, Utah\" src=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/yellow-bellied-marmot-pup-grooming-tail-mia-mcpherson-1127.jpg\" data-orig-src=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/yellow-bellied-marmot-pup-grooming-tail-mia-mcpherson-1127.jpg\" alt=\"Yellow-bellied Marmot pup grooming its tail, Box Elder County, Utah\" width=\"850\" height=\"607\" srcset=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%27http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%27%20width%3D%27850%27%20height%3D%27607%27%20viewBox%3D%270%200%20850%20607%27%3E%3Crect%20width%3D%27850%27%20height%3D%27607%27%20fill-opacity%3D%220%22%2F%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/yellow-bellied-marmot-pup-grooming-tail-mia-mcpherson-1127-200x143.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/yellow-bellied-marmot-pup-grooming-tail-mia-mcpherson-1127-300x214.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/yellow-bellied-marmot-pup-grooming-tail-mia-mcpherson-1127-400x286.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/yellow-bellied-marmot-pup-grooming-tail-mia-mcpherson-1127-600x428.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/yellow-bellied-marmot-pup-grooming-tail-mia-mcpherson-1127-768x548.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/yellow-bellied-marmot-pup-grooming-tail-mia-mcpherson-1127.jpg 850w\" data-sizes=\"auto\" data-orig-sizes=\"(max-width: 850px) 100vw, 850px\" \/><span style=\"color: #808080;\">Yellow-bellied Marmot pup grooming its tail &#8211; Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/1000, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n<p>There are some photographs that I feel I simply <em>have<\/em> to take when given the opportunity and this photograph of a Yellow-bellied Marmot pup grooming its tail was one of those photos.<\/p>\n<p>The marmot pup was sitting on its bottom near its burrow when it reached down and pulled its tail up between its legs to clean it with its tongue and paws.<\/p>\n<p>It just looked so cute sitting there I couldn&#8217;t resist taking a nice series of images of it.<\/p>\n<p>I was also thrilled that my Mom saw this marmot with its sibling and that she was able to take images of them with her cell phone.<\/p>\n<p>She&#8217;d seen my photos of the marmot pups at this burrow before and knew the story behind them. This marmot pup could be the pup that I had so much photographing while it <a href=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2018\/04\/15\/terrific-fun-photographing-a-yellow-bellied-marmot-pup-climbing-a-fence\/\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">climbed a fence<\/span><\/a> several weeks ago because it is one of the five pups from that same burrow.<\/p>\n<p>These pups are growing fast, I&#8217;d say they are twice the size now than they were when I found them back in early April. We only saw two of the pups last week, the other three may have been wandering away from the burrow, I can&#8217;t say for sure.<\/p>\n<p>What I can say for sure is that I think that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.inaturalist.org\/taxa\/46086-Marmota-flaviventris\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Yellow-bellied Marmot<\/span><\/a> pups are adorable and so much fun to photograph and that I was very happy that I could share these pups with my mother.<\/p>\n<p>Mom made it back home last night, it is going to seem strange not having her along now when I go out into the field.<\/p>\n<p>Life <em>is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n<p>Mia<\/p>\n<p>Click <a href=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/yellow-bellied-marmot-images\/\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">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":"<p>There are some photographs that I feel I simply have to take when given the opportunity and this photograph of a Yellow-bellied Marmot pup grooming its tail was one of those photos.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":171379,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","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":[5772,4054,4098,716,5854,2241,4984,4107,11852,4470,165,6285,4029,4193],"class_list":["post-52318","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-burrow","tag-desert","tag-grooming","tag-marmot","tag-marmota-flaviventris","tag-marmots","tag-pup","tag-ranchlands","tag-rocks","tag-spring","tag-tail","tag-yellow-bellied-marmot","tag-young"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/yellow-bellied-marmot-pup-grooming-tail-mia-mcpherson-1127.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-dBQ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":102105,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2022\/05\/03\/young-yellow-bellied-marmot-pup-portraits\/","url_meta":{"origin":52318,"position":0},"title":"Young Yellow-bellied Marmot Pup Portraits","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"May 3, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Today I am sharing two portraits of recently photographed Yellow-bellied Marmot pups that I found near their den in desert habitat in northern Utah.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Box Elder County&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Box Elder County","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/box-elder-county-utah\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Portrait of two Yellow-bellied Marmot pups, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/yellow-bellied-marmot-pups-portrait-mia-mcpherson-9692.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/yellow-bellied-marmot-pups-portrait-mia-mcpherson-9692.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/yellow-bellied-marmot-pups-portrait-mia-mcpherson-9692.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/yellow-bellied-marmot-pups-portrait-mia-mcpherson-9692.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":101349,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2022\/04\/04\/yellow-bellied-marmot-pup-in-a-crack-in-some-rocks\/","url_meta":{"origin":52318,"position":1},"title":"Yellow-bellied Marmot Pup In A Crack In Some Rocks","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"April 4, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"I was delighted to find and photograph a Yellow-bellied Marmot pup peeking out of a crack in some lichen-covered rocks on the 1st of April in northern Utah.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Box Elder County&quot;","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 in a crack in the rocks, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/yellow-bellied-marmot-pup-in-a-crack-mia-mcpherson-8888.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/yellow-bellied-marmot-pup-in-a-crack-mia-mcpherson-8888.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/yellow-bellied-marmot-pup-in-a-crack-mia-mcpherson-8888.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/yellow-bellied-marmot-pup-in-a-crack-mia-mcpherson-8888.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":56702,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2019\/03\/18\/yellow-bellied-marmot-family-in-early-spring\/","url_meta":{"origin":52318,"position":2},"title":"Yellow-bellied Marmot Family In Early 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 &quot;Box Elder County&quot;","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, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/yellow-bellied-marmot-pup-half-standing-mia-mcpherson-1638.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-half-standing-mia-mcpherson-1638.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/yellow-bellied-marmot-pup-half-standing-mia-mcpherson-1638.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/yellow-bellied-marmot-pup-half-standing-mia-mcpherson-1638.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":51655,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2018\/04\/15\/terrific-fun-photographing-a-yellow-bellied-marmot-pup-climbing-a-fence\/","url_meta":{"origin":52318,"position":3},"title":"Terrific Fun Photographing a Yellow-bellied Marmot Pup Climbing a Fence!","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"April 15, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"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\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Box Elder County&quot;","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 grasping a fence, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/yellow-bellied-marmot-fence-mia-mcpherson-9270.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-fence-mia-mcpherson-9270.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/yellow-bellied-marmot-fence-mia-mcpherson-9270.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/yellow-bellied-marmot-fence-mia-mcpherson-9270.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":55169,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2018\/11\/29\/yellow-bellied-marmot-pup-with-a-pale-face-in-northern-utah\/","url_meta":{"origin":52318,"position":4},"title":"Yellow-bellied Marmot Pup With A Pale Face In Northern Utah","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"November 29, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"At one of the burrows where I photographed Yellow-bellied Marmot pups in the spring there was one pup of the five that had a paler face than the other four had and I thought that was interesting.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Box Elder County&quot;","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 with a pale face, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/yellow-bellied-marmot-pup-pale-face-mia-mcpherson-6393.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-pale-face-mia-mcpherson-6393.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/yellow-bellied-marmot-pup-pale-face-mia-mcpherson-6393.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/yellow-bellied-marmot-pup-pale-face-mia-mcpherson-6393.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":52040,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2018\/05\/08\/spring-yellow-bellied-marmot-pup-in-northern-utah\/","url_meta":{"origin":52318,"position":5},"title":"Spring Yellow-bellied Marmot Pup in 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 &quot;Box Elder County&quot;","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, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/yellow-bellied-marmot-pup-mia-mcpherson-6060.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/yellow-bellied-marmot-pup-mia-mcpherson-6060.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52318","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52318"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52318\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/171379"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}