Another marmot fatality hits close to home

There was a fatality on Westsyde Road last night. It was the fifth one in the past week.

I discovered it when I got home. The marmot population is taking a kicking this year. There it was, another of this year’s brood. That makes four pups and one adult.

Despite the fact I have no love of marmots in general, and sometimes joke that traffic is the best form of population control going, I feel sorry for the individuals when I find them. Rather than watch as trucks and cars gradually grind them into the pavement, I stop and move them off the road.

Syd and I are worried that last night’s victim was one of “ours” — one of the family of six that inhabits “Marmot Rock,” a four-foot high piece of rock that sits beside our driveway. We’ll be counting heads as we drive by to see who’s accounted for and who’s not.

A Daily News editorial recently written by another member of our editorial board called marmots “vermin,” and offered no sympathy to these pesky rodents. I agreed with the sentiment. The holes from their dens are everywhere in our hay field, creating a bumpy ride on the tractor, and a real danger to our horses. But rather than try to poison them or smoke them out, I’ve stuck fence posts in all the holes — about 120 of them — to solve the problem.

I can avoid them on the tractor, and the horses avoid them when they’re grazing.

I think there’s an explanation for this. We tend to feel less sympathetic for groups than we do for individuals. When we meet a person face to face, for example, we’re much less ready to condemn based on his or her background, ethnicity, or religion.

I guess it’s the same for marmots.