- See the fluffiest fur and chubbiest rodent cheeks!
Times are tough. With everything seemingly getting more expensive by the day, some folks are having to turn to desperate measures to get by.
Take these Colorado marmots, for instance. To make ends meet, they’ve resorted to posting their pictures on OnlyFans.
Perhaps I should explain. The Marmot Project is a decades-spanning scientific research effort that studies the yellow-bellied marmots (not a reflection of their cowardice) of Colorado.
Despite its long-running status, the project has recently been struggling with funding issues. Strapped for cash, the researchers had to start exploring unorthodox methods to secure financing.
That’s where OnlyFans came in. Although the website is best known for sharing pictures, there’s not actually anything in its user license specifying that you have to post smut.
Dubbed OnlyMarms, the marmots’ account posts “uncensored marmot content” in their natural habitat during their everyday activities. The chunky ground squirrels bask in the sun, play with each other, and have the occasional tussle.
In addition to making a bit of money for the Marmot Project, OnlyMarms has succeeded in raising awareness of the project. After all, there’s really nothing like getting people on your side than cute animal videos.
That’s even if the posts are on OnlyFans. But hey, it’s not like the marmots are wearing anything, so the pics do technically count as nudes.
Distinguished but Poor
The man behind the OnlyMarms account is Dr. Daniel Blumstein of the UCLA-affiliated Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory (RMBL). He has worked on the Marmot Project for a long time, and it’s quite the illustrious position to hold.
At least if you’re into marmot studies.
The Marmot Project has been running for more than 60 years. It bears the distinction of being the second-longest-running study of individually identified mammals ever, beaten only by Jane Goodall’s famous chimpanzee study.
As yellow-bellied marmots are not threatened, the long-term study helps researchers understand natural population changes.
Despite its credentials, the Marmot Project isn’t doing too well. Recent cuts to federal research funding to universities have caused significant money woes at the RMBL.
Identity Verification
Financial struggles were on Blumstein’s mind when he was observing the marmots live their marmot lives in the field one day. That’s when a TV show he’d watched recently popped into his mind.
Blumstein had watched Margot’s Got Money Troubles. The Apple TV show stars Elle Fanning, whose character turns to OnlyFans to make money.
The thought occurred to Blumstein that maybe the marmots could do the same thing. He enjoyed watching the chubby critters, so perhaps others would as well.
Blumstein shared the idea with his students, who came up with the name OnlyMarms. With the help of one of them, he set up a new OnlyFans account.
Then Blumstein ran into an issue with OnlyFans’ ID verification. As part of the account creation process, he had to upload a picture of his driver’s license to prove he wasn’t a bot or some kind of malicious actor.
However, he had used a photo of a marmot for the account’s profile picture. Obviously, the face on his driver’s license didn’t match that of the marmot, and the automated system suspended the account before it could even launch.
Blumstein emailed OnlyFans, explaining why he was making the account. Perhaps surprisingly, the email reached an actual human being, and OnlyMarms was freed from account jail.
More for Awareness
So, have the photos of marmots strutting their stuff saved the Marmot Project from financial disaster? Not really.
All in all, the OnlyMarms account has so far generated a bit more than $5,000. However, after OnlyFans takes its cut, the Marmot Project pockets about $4,000.
That’s nowhere near enough to fund the entire research project. As such, the RMBL will still have to make some serious spending cuts with the Marmot Project.
Then again, Blumstein likely never even intended the OnlyFans page to make up for all the missing funds. Perhaps more than anything, it has been a vessel to raise awareness of Rocky Mountains marmots and why studying them matters.
If you want to see some pics of exposed marmots (and help science while you’re at it), though, you now know where to look.