Marmots are large in the genus Marmota, with 15 species living in Asia, Europe, and North America. These 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.
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.]
Biology
Some species live in mountainous areas, such as the Alps, northern Apennines, Carpathians, Tatra Mountains, and Pyrenees in Europe; northwestern Asia; the Rocky Mountains, Black Hills, the Cascade Range 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 (often within rockpiles, particularly in the case of the yellow-bellied marmot), and Hibernation 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 Poaceae, berry, , , , and .
Subgenera and species
The following is a list of all Marmota species recognized by Thorington and Hoffman[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.] plus the recently defined M. kastschenkoi.[ They divide marmots into two Subgenus.
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| | Marmota bobak | Bobak marmot | eastern Europe to central Asia |
| | Marmota broweri | Alaska marmot, Brower's marmot, or Brooks Range marmot | Alaska |
| | Marmota camtschatica | Black-capped marmot | eastern Siberia |
| | Marmota caudata | Long-tailed marmot, golden marmot, or red marmot | central Asia |
| | Marmota himalayana | Himalayan marmot or Tibetan snow pig | the Himalayas |
| | Marmota kastschenkoi | Forest-steppe marmot | south Russia |
| | 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 |
| | Marmota monax | Groundhog, woodchuck, or whistle pig | Canada and eastern United States |
| | Marmota sibirica | Tarbagan marmot, Mongolian marmot, or tarvaga | Siberia |
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| | Marmota flaviventris | Yellow-bellied marmot | southwestern Canada and western United States |
| | Marmota olympus | Olympic marmot | endemic to the Olympic Peninsula, Washington, United States |
| | Marmota vancouverensis | Vancouver Island marmot | endemic to Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada |
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Some Extinction species of marmots are recognized from the fossil record, for example:
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† Marmota arizonae, Arizona, U.S.
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† Marmota minor, Nevada, U.S.
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† Marmota vetus, Nebraska, U.S.
History and etymology
Marmots have been known since antiquity. Research by the France Ethnology Michel Peissel claimed the story of the "Gold-digging ant" reported by the Ancient Greece 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.[Peissel, Michel. "The Ants' Gold: The Discovery of the Greek El Dorado in the Himalayas". Collins, 1984. .]
Some historians believe that Strabo's λέων μύρμηξ ( léōn mýrmīx), and Agatharchides's μυρμηκολέων ( myrmīkoléōn), most probably are the marmot.[ Strabo, Geography H.C. Hamilton, Esq., W. Falconer, M.A., Ed., 16.4.15, note 1]
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.[The Associated Press. "Alaska to Celebrate its First Marmot Day" , Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. Feb. 1, 2010. Accessed Feb. 1, 2010.]
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.[Smithsonian Magazine. "Did the Black Death Rampage Across the World a Century Earlier Than Previously Thought?", March 25, 2021. Accessed March 27, 2010.][The American Historical Review. "The Four Black Deaths", December 17, 2020. Accessed March 27, 2010.]
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