Marmot

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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.[1]

Description

File:Marmotte (Montréal).jpg
North American marmot, Montreal, Canada

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.[2][3] Total length varies typically from about Template:Convert and body mass averages about Template:Convert in spring in the smaller species and Template:Convert in autumn, at times exceeding Template:Convert, in the larger species.[4][5][6] The largest and smallest species are not clearly known.[3][4] 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.[5][7][8][6] 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.[9][10] 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).[11][12]

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, lichens, mosses, roots, and flowers.

File:Marmot eating.webm
Marmot eating flowers

Subgenera and species

The following is a list of all Marmota species recognized by Thorington and Hoffman[13] plus the recently defined M. kastschenkoi.[14] They divide marmots into two subgenera.

Subgenus Image Name Common Name Distribution
Marmota File:Marmota baibacina.jpg Marmota baibacina Gray marmot or Altai marmot Siberia
File:Сурок Гальичья сопка (5).jpg Marmota bobak Bobak marmot eastern Europe to central Asia
File:Marmota broweri 71042866 (cropped).jpg Marmota broweri Alaska marmot, Brower's marmot, or Brooks Range marmot Alaska
File:Сурок черношапочный (камчатский).jpg Marmota camtschatica Black-capped marmot eastern Siberia
File:Marmota caudata Kashmir.jpg Marmota caudata Long-tailed marmot, golden marmot, or red marmot central Asia
File:Himalayan Marmot at Tshophu Lake Bhutan 091007 b.jpg Marmota himalayana Himalayan marmot or Tibetan snow pig the Himalayas
File:Marmota kastschenkoi 1488414.jpg Marmota kastschenkoi Forest-steppe marmot south Russia[14]
File:Marmotte 2014 2015 (10).JPG Marmota marmota Alpine marmot Europe only in the Alps, Carpathian Mountains, Tatra Mountains, northern Apennine Mountains, and reintroduced in the Pyrenees
Marmota menzbieri Menzbier's marmot central Asia
File:Marmota monax UL 04.jpg Marmota monax Groundhog, woodchuck, or whistle pig Canada and eastern United States
File:Filhote-de-Marmota-Sibirica.jpg Marmota sibirica Tarbagan marmot, Mongolian marmot, or tarvaga Siberia
Petromarmota File:Hoary Marmot in Glacier National Park.jpg Marmota caligata Hoary marmot northwestern North America (Alaska, Yukon, British Columbia, Alberta, Washington, Montana)
File:Marmota flaviventris (Yellow Bellied Marmot), Yosemite NP - Diliff.jpg Marmota flaviventris Yellow-bellied marmot southwestern Canada and western United States
File:My Friend the Marmot (4241532773) flipped.jpg Marmota olympus Olympic marmot endemic to the Olympic Peninsula, Washington, United States
File:Marmota vancouverensis 94537857.jpg Marmota vancouverensis Vancouver Island marmot endemic to Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada

Some extinct species of marmots are recognized from the fossil record, for example:

  • †Marmota arizonae, Arizona, U.S.[15][16]
  • †Marmota minor, Nevada, U.S.[17]
  • †Marmota vetus, Nebraska, U.S.[18]

History and etymology

File:Jacopo Ligozzi, A Marmot with a Branch of Plums, 1605, NGA 139309.jpg
A Marmot with a Branch of Plums, 1605 by Jacopo Ligozzi
File:Marmota primigenia.JPG
Marmota primigenia fossil

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.[19] Some historians believe that Strabo's Script error: No such module "Lang". (léōn mýrmēx), and Agatharchides's Script error: No such module "Lang". (myrmēkoléōn), most probably are the marmot.[20]

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, Script error: No such module "Lang"., meaning "mountain mouse".[21]

Beginning in 2010, Alaska celebrates February 2 as "Marmot Day", a holiday intended to observe the prevalence of marmots in that state and takes the place of Groundhog Day.[22]

Relationship to the Black Death

Some historians and paleogeneticists have postulated that the Yersinia pestis variant that caused the Black Death pandemic that struck Eurasia in the 14th century originated from a variant for which marmots in China were the natural reservoir species.[23][24]

References

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External links

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  13. ↑ Thorington, R. W., Jr., and R. S. Hoffman. (2005). "Family Sciuridae". Mammal Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference, pp. 754–818. D. E. Wilson and D. M. Reeder, eds. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore.
  14. ↑ a b Script error: No such module "Citation/CS1".
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  18. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  19. ↑ Peissel, Michel. "The Ants' Gold: The Discovery of the Greek El Dorado in the Himalayas". Collins, 1984. Template:ISBN.
  20. ↑ Strabo, Geography H.C. Hamilton, Esq., W. Falconer, M.A., Ed., 16.4.15, note 1
  21. ↑ Template:OED
  22. ↑ The Associated Press. "Alaska to Celebrate its First Marmot Day" Template:Webarchive, Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. Feb. 1, 2010. Accessed Feb. 1, 2010.
  23. ↑ Smithsonian Magazine. "Did the Black Death Rampage Across the World a Century Earlier Than Previously Thought?", March 25, 2021. Accessed March 27, 2010.
  24. ↑ The American Historical Review. "The Four Black Deaths", December 17, 2020. Accessed March 27, 2010.
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