Day 337: When I arrived at the Stevens-VanTrump monument near the top of my MeadoWatch hike, I noticed a man eating a sandwich and a marmot on the ground about a yard away from his feet. I figured I was going to have to speak to him about feeding the animals, but then I realized he wasn't feeding the critter. As I watched, the marmot brazenly moved closer until it was just inches away from the visitor's legs. Then it hunkered down like a cat getting ready to pounce, its hindquarters wiggling in a way any cat owner would recognize. At that point, I saw that a rapid intervention was needed to keep the animal from jumping into the man's lap, so I shooed it off, but it moved reluctantly and only went a few feet to stand its ground at the edge of the trees. I chased it a little more vigorously, but as soon as I turned my back on it, it came right back to where the man was sitting.
After I had hazed the animal several more times, the hiker got up and walked over to the stone bench to eat his sandwich standing up. The marmot followed, got up on the high back of the bench, and appeared to be preparing to leap onto the man's shoulder. By then, several other visitors had gathered around. The marmot went up to several of them, contacting their shoes or pantlegs with its nose.
In all, I spent about 45 minutes chasing the marmot back toward its den. Invariably, it returned as soon as I stepped away. I even pushed it with my trekking pole (rather forcibly, but not abruptly or sharply). I figured this stand-off might well go on all day, so after instructing all visitors present that they should not approach or feed or in any way encourage the marmot, I went off to complete my hike. When I came back down, marmot was still there with a new set of visitors and being just as insistent as before. For the record, I have never seen such assertive behaviour in a marmot, but after all, they are just enormous squirrels.
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