[4] M. vancouverensis lives above 1000 metres elevation in meadows that face south to west, and habitat scarceness is believed to be the primary reason for its rarity.

[3] The only species of marmot endemic to Vancouver Island,[11] it apparently evolved rapidly since the retreat of the Cordilleran ice sheet some 10,000 years ago.

[22] Over more recent time scales, population dynamics may have been influenced by short-term weather patterns and systematic changes in the landscape.

One study concluded that clearcuts therefore act as a kind of population "sink" in which long-term reproduction and survival rates are reduced to the point of unsustainability[20] One 2005 study concluded the main cause of recent decline to be predation "associated with forestry and altered predator abundance and hunting patterns".

[24] This study also revealed seasonal variations in mortality rates, where the probability of death was low during hibernation, and high in August.

[24] Major predators upon Vancouver Island marmots include golden eagles (Aquila chrysaetos), cougars (Puma concolor) and wolves (Canis lupus).

[27] In 1998 a new model for species recovery was developed involving the collaboration of government, private industry and public donors.

A census in late 2003 resulted in a count of only 21 wild marmots known to be present on four mountains of Vancouver Island.

[30] Due to conservation and recovery efforts, the population of Vancouver Island marmots has significantly increased since 2003.

Nevertheless, Vancouver Island marmot populations continue to fluctuate due to natural events as well as increased predation.

In 2009, Nagorsen and Cardini identified, from museum specimens, substantial physical differences between species that can be explained only by rapid evolution in a relatively isolated island context.

In 2023 the Vancouver Island marmot was featured on a United States Postal Service forever stamp as part of the Endangered Species set, based on a photograph from Joel Sartore's Photo Ark.