The forest-steppe marmot (''Marmota kastschenkoi'') is a

rodent Rodents (from Latin , 'to gnaw') are mammals of the order Rodentia (), which are characterized by a single pair of continuously growing incisors in each of the upper and lower jaws. About 40% of all mammal species are rodents. They are n ...

species of the

marmot Marmots are large ground squirrels in the genus ''Marmota'', with 15 species living in Asia, Europe, and North America. These herbivores are active during the summer, when they can often be found in groups, but are not seen during the winter, ...

genus found in south-central

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

. It lives in wooded

forest steppe A forest steppe is a temperate-climate ecotone and habitat type composed of grassland interspersed with areas of woodland or forest. Locations Forest steppe primarily occurs in a belt of forest steppes across northern Eurasia from the eastern ...

at an altitude of in a relatively small region located directly east of the upper

Ob River } The Ob ( rus, Обь, p=opʲ: Ob') is a major river in Russia. It is in western Siberia; and together with Irtysh forms the world's seventh-longest river system, at . It forms at the confluence of the Biya and Katun which have their origins ...

. It has traditionally been considered a subspecies of the similar, more southerly distributed gray marmot (''M. baibacina''), but was separated mainly due to different

diploid number Ploidy () is the number of complete sets of chromosomes in a cell, and hence the number of possible alleles for autosomal and pseudoautosomal genes. Sets of chromosomes refer to the number of maternal and paternal chromosome copies, respective ...

s. Forest-steppe marmots have a head-and-body length of , and light individuals weigh as little as in the spring (after hibernation) and heavy individuals as much as in the autumn (before hibernation). It hibernates for about 6 months starting in August or September. In 2011, it was estimated that the forest-steppe marmot population consisted of about 14,000–16,000 individuals and had been stable over the last several decades, but earlier estimates have been both somewhat above and significantly below this figure.

References

Marmots Rodents of Asia Mammals of Russia Mammals described in 1956 {{ground-squirrel-stub