Colorado: Marmots making money on OnlyFans after federal funding cut for university study
OnlyFans has found some unlikely new stars — and they’re helping save a decades-long scientific study.
The latest OnlyFans stars are bushy, large, and making cash.
Marmots are large, ground-dwelling squirrels, and a new page on the subscription-based site is helping fund research.
The page was first ideated by Dr Daniel Blumstein, the head of a long-running field study on the animals.
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By continuing you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy.He told the BBC that the setting up of an OnlyFans page came as “an act of desperation” after federal funding for universities was cut in the US, leaving the UCLA-affiliated Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory in Colorado worried about its financial future.
The Marmot Project has been running for more than six decades and is the second-longest study of individually identified mammals after Jane Goodall’s chimpanzee study in Tanzania.
It focuses on one of the 15 species of marmot in the Northern Hemisphere: the yellow-bellied marmot.
Dr Blumstein said that while the study was effective, he had been unable to secure funding for it.
The idea came to him after watching US television show Margot’s got Money Troubles where the protagonist starts an OnlyFans account to support her child.
“Marmots’ got money troubles,” he said.
“Maybe we should do something a little risqué”.
Alongside his students, the lab came up with the name “OnlyMarms”.
On OnlyMarms, users will find “uncensored marmot content” rather than the sexually explicit content the platform is known for.
Dr Blumstein encountered a hiccup after the account was set up by one of his students.
To verify the account, he uploaded a picture of his licence, which was flagged by the platform for not looking like the profile picture — a marmot.
The problem was quickly resolved and, since then, the account has raised more than $US5000 ($A7089), which OnlyFans will take a cut of about $US1000 from.
To keep the project going, Dr Blumstein told NPR he needed between $75,000 and $100,000.
“We have some funding for next year, but after that, it’s looking very dire,” he said.
“And part of that is because the universities are being cut.
“Our department lost a third of our support for graduate students, so we’re accepting fewer graduate students.
“And it’s the graduate students who are out here for the five-month field season that it takes to keep this thing going.”
Footage uploaded to OnlyMarms is of marmots in their natural habitat of the Rocky Mountains.
In one clip, “the queen of the town” — a female marmot, who become grumpier as they age — is sunning herself.
In another, a female marmot can be seen chasing away a mole who had made itself comfortable in her burrow.
