Swiss study shows marmots move to higher altitude due to climate change

Marmots now live on average 86 metres higher than they did 40 years ago. However, according to a new study, their absolute upper limit has not shifted – they do not go above 2,700 metres above sea level. This was already the case in 1982. +Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox This was shown by a study of marmots in the Dischma Valley near Davos in canton Graubünden by researchers from the Swiss Federal Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF. SLF biologist Anne Kempel suspected that the animals were migrating to higher altitudes due to warmer temperatures as a result of climate change, as she explained in a press release issued by the SLF on Tuesday. However, this is only partially true, as the results of the study published in the journal Ecology and Evolution show. The researchers analysed the marmots using the same methods as a study conducted in 1982. “Other factors probably play a more important role than the warmer temperatures,” explained Kempel.