Alpine marmot ( Marmota marmota ) pups emerge increasingly earlier with ongoing climate change

Abstract Advance in the phenology of plants and animals is a widely observed response to climate change. The magnitude of the changes is, however, very variable across species. Several biological factors could influence the strength of the phenological advances, including lifestyle. Hibernation has evolved in response to harsh environmental conditions and could, hence, potentially buffer organisms against changing climatic conditions. In the Alps, the Alpine marmot hibernates for almost 6 months. Owing to its slow pace-of-life, we expected Alpine marmots to be more responsive to earlier springs than non-hibernating species. Here we investigate temporal variation in the date at which pups emerge from their natal burrow for the first time. Using quantile regressions, we provide clear evidence of an earlier pup emergence between 1990 and 2023. Over the study period, the predicted change is 4.7 days. In particular, late emergence dates are becoming especially rare over time. Our findings are in line with previous works on other Alpine species, which suggest a general advance in reproductive phenology. The rate of change of pup emergence dates over years is, however, weaker in the Alpine marmot than in most other mammalian species studied so far.