Marmot

Marmots are unmistakable when they sit erect in front of their burrow. The large rodents warn the others of danger with a loud whistle.

Characteristics

What do marmots look like?

The alpine marmot belongs to the rodent order and there to the squirrel family and to the marmot genus. It has an elongated, very powerful body. It measures 40 to 50 centimeters from the snout to the bottom, plus the ten to 20 centimeter-long tail.

This makes the Alpine marmot the third largest rodent in Europe after the beaver and the porcupine found in southern Italy. The males are a bit larger and weigh at least three kilograms, the females are slightly smaller and lighter. The muscular shoulders are striking. The front legs are slightly shorter than the hind legs and are designed as digging paws. The front feet have four toes and the hind feet have five. The soles of the feet have thick pads.

The alpine marmot has a very dense coat of short undercoat and longer, strong guard hairs. The color can be quite different, the spectrum ranges from gray to light brown to reddish-brown on the back, the belly is usually yellowish. The fur of some animals appears almost black. The head is dark to grey, the snout is lighter. Marmots can see and hear very well, but their sense of smell is weak.

Where do marmots live?

Alpine marmots are distributed in the Alps, the Carpathians, and the High Tatras. However, marmots do not live everywhere in these mountains, but only in some regions. Marmots have also been settled in some areas, for example in the Eastern Alps, the Pyrenees, and a small area in the Black Forest.

The Alpine marmot is only found from the tree line up to about 200 meters above sea level. They live at a maximum of 3000 meters. They are never to be found below an altitude of 800 meters. Marmots prefer the southern slopes of the mountains because they are the first to be free of snow in spring. They brew habitats with so-called alpine turf because only there do they find their food plants. In addition, the soil there must be thick enough for them to dig their burrows.

What types of marmots are there?

The genus of marmots includes 14 different species. They are all distributed in Eurasia and North America. In addition to the Alpine marmot, there is also the steppe marmot. It occurs from Eastern Europe to Central Asia. The Siberian marmot lives in southern Siberia and Mongolia. The woodchuck is native to Canada and the United States, the Alaskan marmot to northern Alaska, and the yellow-bellied marmot to southwestern Canada.

How old do marmots get?

Alpine marmots live up to twelve years in the wild.

Behave

How do marmots live?

Alpine marmots, like the other marmot species, are very social animals. They live in family groups of up to 20 animals. The groups consist of a couple and their offspring, which means that the young from several years stay with the family at first. The animals in a group play a lot with each other and groom each other’s fur.

Marmots live in territories that they strictly monitor. The males mark the boundaries of territory with a secretion from their cheek glands. In addition, they often walk along the territory’s borders and move their tails up and down. And since males and females have their own hierarchy, the highest-ranking male defends territory only from foreign males, while the highest-ranking female-only repels female invaders.

There are three types of burrows: The most important is the winter burrow, its nest chambers are up to seven and a half meters below the surface of the earth. There the animals spend the winter protected. The summer burrows are only up to one and a half meters below ground. Here the marmots rest during the warm season or seek shelter when the heat outside the burrow becomes too strong for them. In addition, marmots have so-called escape tunnels in their territory, into which they retreat in the event of danger and which only have one or two exits.

Alpine marmots hibernate for six to seven months from October to March. The animals of a family association sleep together in their burrow. In the period before hibernation, they bring dry plant material into their nest chambers to pad them and insulate them against the cold. Then, when it’s finally time to hibernate, they seal the entrance with a one to a two-meter-long mixture of dirt, rocks, grass, and droppings. During hibernation, the animals live off the fat reserves they have accumulated over the summer, lose about a third of their body weight, and their body temperature drops to five degrees Celsius. They only wake up briefly every three to four weeks to defecate and urinate.

Friends and foes of the groundhog

The main enemy of the Alpine marmots is the golden eagle. Young animals can also be dangerous to foxes, stone martens, and ravens. Marmots, therefore, keep vigil when they are outside their burrow. When an animal sees an enemy, it lets out a high-pitched whistle that warns the others.

How do marmots reproduce?

Female marmots do not reproduce every year, sometimes four years from one litter to the next. The mating season is during two weeks in April and May. Only the highest-ranking female reproduces. After a gestation period of about five weeks, two to six young are born.

They are naked, blind, and deaf and weigh only 30 grams. They open their eyes after about 24 days. They are nursed by their mother for about six weeks from birth.

At around 40 days they weigh around 240 grams and leave the burrow for the first time. Now they also start to eat grass and are only occasionally suckled.

Marmots become sexually mature at around three years of age. They then leave their family group, look for their own territory and establish their own family group. Sometimes the boys stay longer with their families.