Olympic Marmot -- Olympic National Park, WA

This slightly blurry little guy is an Olympic Marmot. They are found only in Olympic National Park and its immediate surroundings. Olympic is home to a number of indigenous species, because of the fact that it used to be an island until uplift of the water-filled valley that used to separate it from the mainland caused it to connect. These little guys like to whistle, and have a whistle so powerful that it can shatter the eardrums of the coyote that has it cornered. They also seem to whistle to communicate, since we heard a lot of whistling on our hike. The marmots never stop eating, either, since they hibernate for about seven months out of the year.