Researchers in Colorado launched an OnlyFans page called “OnlyMarms” in early July to raise money for a study on yellow-bellied marmots [1].
The move highlights the precarious nature of wildlife research when federal funding is reduced. The team is using the platform to avoid the complete collapse of a project that tracks alpine wildlife behavior.
Led by Dr. Emily Hart, researchers from the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory (RMBL) near Crested Butte created the page to post videos of the animals [1, 3]. The team turned to the subscription platform after federal research funding cuts, referred to as Trump funding cuts, left the study under-funded [1, 5].
"We turned to OnlyFans as a last resort to keep the marmot study alive," Hart said [1].
The research program has been running for 30 years [1]. Because of the long-term nature of the data, the researchers expressed urgency in maintaining the project's continuity despite the loss of government support.
An RMBL spokesperson said the community has been supportive, and the page has already raised several thousand dollars [2]. There are conflicting reports regarding the page's payment structure; some sources state subscribers pay a monthly fee, while others describe the page as free with optional donations [1].
Prof. Mark Jensen of UCLA noted that the approach is unconventional for the scientific community. "It’s a quirky way to fund science, but it works," Jensen said [6].
The RMBL continues to monitor the marmots in their alpine habitat while seeking more stable financial avenues to replace the lost federal grants [1, 3].
“"We turned to OnlyFans as a last resort to keep the marmot study alive."”
The shift toward crowdsourcing and social-media-based fundraising for academic research reflects a growing trend of 'financial improvisation' in the sciences. When long-term longitudinal studies—which provide critical baseline data for climate and biological changes—face sudden federal funding gaps, researchers are forced to prioritize visibility and viral appeal over traditional grant writing to ensure their data sets remain intact.
