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, when they hibernate underground. They are the heaviest members of the squirrel family.

Description

Marmots are large rodents with characteristically short but robust legs, enlarged claws which are well adapted to digging, stout bodies, and large heads and incisors to quickly process a variety of vegetation. While most species are various forms of earthen-hued brown, marmots vary in fur coloration based roughly on their surroundings. Species in more open habitat are more likely to have a paler color, while those sometimes found in well- forested regions tend to be darker. Marmots are the heaviest members of the squirrel family. Total length varies typically from about and body mass averages about in spring in the smaller species and in autumn, at times exceeding , in the larger species. The largest and smallest species are not clearly known. In North America, on the basis of mean linear dimensions and body masses through the year, the smallest species appears to be the Alaska marmot and the largest is the Olympic marmot. Some species, such as the Himalayan marmot and Tarbagan marmot in Asia, appear to attain roughly similar body masses to the Olympic marmot, but are not known to reach as high a total length as the Olympic species. In the traditional definition of hibernation, the largest marmots are considered the largest "true hibernators" (since larger "hibernators" such as bears do not have the same physiological characteristics as obligate hibernating animals such as assorted rodents, bats and insectivores).

Biology

Some species live in mountainous areas, such as the Alps, northern Apennines, Carpathians, Tatras, and Pyrenees in Europe; northwestern Asia; the Rocky Mountains, Black Hills, the Cascade and Pacific Ranges, and the Sierra Nevada in North America; and the Deosai Plateau in Pakistan and Ladakh in India. Other species prefer rough grassland and can be found widely across North America and the Eurasian Steppe. The slightly smaller and more social prairie dog is not classified in the genus ''Marmota'', but in the related genus ''Cynomys''.

Marmots typically live in burrows (often within rockpiles, particularly in the case of the yellow-bellied marmot), and hibernate there through the winter. Most marmots are highly social and use loud whistles to communicate with one another, especially when alarmed.

Marmots mainly eat greens and many types of grasses, berries, lichenes, roots, and flowers.

Subgenera and species

The following is a list of all ''Marmota'' species recognized by Thorington and Hoffman plus the recently defined ''M. kastschenkoi''. They divide marmots into two subgenera.
*Genus ''Marmota'' – marmots
**Subgenus ''Marmota''
*** Alaska marmot, Brower's marmot, or Brooks Range marmot, ''M. broweri'' found in Alaska
***Alpine marmot, ''M. marmota'' found only in Europe in the Alps, Carpathian Mountains, Tatra Mountains, northern Apennine Mountains, and reintroduced in the Pyrenees
***Black-capped marmot, ''M. camtschatica'' found in eastern Siberia
*** Bobak marmot, ''M. bobak'' found from eastern Europe to central Asia
***Forest-steppe marmot, ''M. kastschenkoi'' found in south Russia
*** Gray marmot or Altai marmot, ''M. baibacina'' found in Siberia
***Groundhog, woodchuck, or whistlepig, ''M. monax'' found in much of Canada and east of the Mississippi in northern USA
*** Himalayan marmot or Tibetan snow pig, ''M. himalayana'' found in the Himalayas
***Long-tailed marmot, golden marmot, or red marmot, ''M. caudata'' found in central Asia
***Menzbier's marmot, ''M. menzbieri'' found in central Asia
*** Tarbagan marmot, Mongolian marmot, or ''tarvaga'', ''M. sibirica'' found in Siberia
**Subgenus ''Petromarmota''
*** Hoary marmot, ''M. caligata'' found in northwestern North America (Alaska, Yukon, British Columbia, Alberta, Washington, Montana)
*** Olympic marmot, ''M. olympus'' endemic to the Olympic Peninsula, Washington, United States
*** Vancouver Island marmot, ''M. vancouverensis'' endemic to Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada
***Yellow-bellied marmot, ''M. flaviventris'' found in southwestern Canada and western United States

Additionally, four extinct species of marmots are recognized from the fossil record:

*†''Marmota arizonae'', Arizona, U.S.
*†''Marmota minor'', Nevada, U.S.
*''Marmota robusta'', China = ''M. himalayana''
*†''Marmota vetus'', Nebraska, U.S.

History and etymology

Marmots have been known since antiquity. Research by the French ethnologist Michel Peissel claimed the story of the "Gold-digging ant" reported by the Ancient Greek historian Herodotus, who lived in the fifth century BCE, was founded on the golden Himalayan marmot of the Deosai Plateau and the habit of local tribes such as the Brokpa to collect the gold dust excavated from their burrows.
Some historians believe that Strabo's ''λέων μύρμηξ'' and Agatharchides's ''μυρμηκολέων'', most probably are the marmot.

An anatomically accurate image of a marmot was printed and distributed as early as 1605 by Jacopo Ligozzi, who was noted for his images of flora and fauna.

The etymology of the term "marmot" is uncertain. It may have arisen from the Gallo-Romance prefix ''marm-'', meaning to mumble or murmur (an example of onomatopoeia). Another possible origin is postclassical Latin, ''mus montanus'', meaning "mountain mouse".

Beginning in 2010, Alaska celebrates February 2 as "Marmot Day", a holiday intended to observe the prevalence of marmots in that state and take the place of Groundhog Day.

Relationship to the Black Death

A number of historians and paleogeneticists have postulated that the ''Yersinia pestis'' variant that caused the pandemic that struck Eurasia in the 14th century originated from a variant for which marmots in China were the natural reservoir species.The American Historical Review
"The Four Black Deaths"
December 17, 2020. Accessed March 27, 2010.

Examples of species

File:Marmota flaviventris (Yellow Bellied Marmot), Yosemite NP - Diliff.jpg, Yellow-bellied marmot (''Marmota flaviventris'', Tuolumne Meadows, Yosemite National Park
File:Marmot_princeton.JPG, Yellow-bellied marmot, near Princeton, British Columbia
File:OlympicMarmotImageFromNPS.jpg, Olympic marmot (''Marmota olympus'')
File:Groundhog, eating.jpg, Groundhog (''Marmota monax''), Ottawa, Ontario
File:Hoary_marmot2.jpg, Hoary marmot (''Marmota caligata''), Mount Rainier National Park
File:Alpine Marmot portrait.jpg, Alpine marmot, Vanoise National Park, French Alps
File:Marmota camtschatica img 4973.jpg, Black-capped marmot (''Marmota camtschatica'')
File:Marmota caudata Kashmir.jpg, Long-tailed marmot (''Marmota caudata''), Kashmir
File:Himalayan Marmot at Tshophu Lake Bhutan 091007 b.jpg, Himalayan marmot (''Marmota himalayanus''), Bhutan
File:Marmota baibacina.jpg, Gray marmot (''Marmota baibacina''), Altai Mountains, Kazakhstan
File:Marmota sibirica - (Russia, Mongolia) - Rochers-de-Naye, Switzerland, 2009.JPG, Tarbagan marmot (''Marmota sibirica''), Russia and Mongolia
File:Steppenmurmeltier.jpg, Drawing of bobak marmot (''Marmota bobak'')

References

External links

The Marmot Burrow

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Rodents of Asia
Rodents of Europe
Rodents of North America
Extant Miocene first appearances
Taxa named by Johann Friedrich Blumenbach