Marmot
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| Marmot Fossil range: Late Miocene - Recent |
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Marmota baibacina |
Marmots are members of the genus Marmota, in the rodent family Sciuridae (squirrels).
Marmots are generally large ground squirrels. Those most often referred to as marmots tend to live in mountainous areas such as the Alps, Carpathians, Tatra, and Pyrenees in Europe, the Rockies and the Sierra Nevada in the United States, and Northern Canada. However, the groundhog is also properly called a marmot, while the similarly-sized but more social prairie dog is not classified in the genus Marmota but in the related genus Cynomys.
Marmots typically live in burrows, and hibernate there through the winter. Most marmots are highly social, and use loud whistles to communicate with one another, especially when alarmed.
Some historians suggest that marmots, rather than rats, were the primary carriers of the Bubonic plague or yersinia pestis during several historic outbreaks.[1]Through this they are credited with a death toll of over a billion, making them second only to the malarial mosquito as a killer of humans.
The name marmot comes from French marmotte, from Old French marmotan, marmontaine, from Old Franco-Provençal, from Low Latin mures montani "mountain mouse", from Latin mures monti, from Classical Latin mures alpini "Alps mouse".
Marmots mainly eat greens. They eat many types of grasses, berries, lichens, mosses, roots and flowers.
The writings of Marco Polo refer to the marmot as "Pharaoh's rats."
Marmots are also credited with transmitting numerous coughing ailments to humans.
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[edit] Species
The following is a list of all Marmota species recognized by Thorington and Hoffman (2005). They divide marmots into two subgenera.
- Genus Marmota - marmots
- Subgenus Marmota
- Alpine Marmot Marmota marmota found only in Europe in the Alps, Carpathians, Tatra, and reintroduced in the Pyrenees.
- Gray Marmot or Altai Marmot Marmota baibacina Siberia
- Bobak Marmot Marmota bobak Central Europe to Central Asia
- Alaska Marmot, Brower's Marmot or Brooks Range Marmot Marmota broweri Nearctic
- Black-capped Marmot Marmota camtschatica Eastern Siberia
- Long-tailed Marmot, Golden Marmot or Red Marmot Marmota caudata Central Asia
- Himalayan marmot or Tibetan Snow Pig Marmota himalayana Himalaya
- Menzbier's Marmot Marmota menzbieri Central Asia
- Woodchuck, Groundhog, or Whistlepig Marmota monax North America
- Tarbagan Marmot, Mongolian Marmot or Tarvaga Marmota sibirica, Siberia
- Subgenus Petromarmota
- Hoary Marmot Marmota caligata Northwestern North America
- Yellow-bellied Marmot Marmota flaviventris South western Canada, Western United States
- Olympic Marmot Marmota olympus Olympic Peninsula, Washington, USA
- Vancouver Island Marmot Marmota vancouverensis Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada
- Subgenus Marmota
[edit] Examples of species
 Groundhog, Marmota monax |
 Alpine Marmot in the Massif des Écrins, southern France. |
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 drawing of Bobak Marmot |
[edit] References
- Thorington, R. W. Jr. and R. S. Hoffman. 2005. Family Sciuridae. Pp. 754-818 in Mammal Species of the World a Taxonomic and Geographic Reference. D. E. Wilson and D. M. Reeder eds. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore.
[edit] External links
