- Researchers fund UCLA marmot study via OnlyFans platform with animal videos
- OnlyMarms channel posts family-friendly marmot videos, earning over $5,000
- Subscriptions are free; tips support fieldwork, equipment, and student research
A group of researchers has chosen an absolutely unconventional path to fund a long-running field study on marmots - chubby, ground-dwelling squirrels. After recent federal cuts to universities, researchers decided to get creative. The UCLA-affiliated marmot research lab turned to the subscription-based platform, OnlyFans, to post videos of marmots and earn money.
Led by biology professor Daniel Blumstein, the researchers study yellow-bellied marmots in the Colorado mountains. The account, known as "OnlyMarms", was created at the end of May. Since then, several dozen family-friendly videos have been posted.
According to the BBC, the content has so far generated more than $5,000 on a platform which is known mostly for sexually explicit content.
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The subscription to "OnlyMarms" is free, allowing anyone to follow the animals' daily lives. Viewers are encouraged to leave tips and donations, which directly support field equipment, data collection, and student researchers.
One of the videos showed a female marmot known as "1" chasing away a curious male named "G" when he poked around her burrow. Another video showed a marmot getting closer to the camera lens.
"These are wild animals, so it's important for people to know that we are just getting footage of them in their natural environment," Emily Renkey, a first-year graduate student in the Blumstein Lab at UCLA, said as quoted by the LA Times. "We're just framing it as a way to be in the field observing marmots with us."
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All about the research
Running continuously since 1962, this 64-year project is the second-longest study of individually marked mammals in history, behind only Jane Goodall's chimpanzee research.
The research was started by behavioural and physiological ecologist Ken Armitage, who died in 2022. After that, Blumstein assumed responsibility for the project in 2001 when Armitage retired.
