Hoary Marmot
by Jon Burch Photography
Title
Hoary Marmot
Artist
Jon Burch Photography
Medium
Photograph - Digital Capture
Description
Woodchucks, groundhogs and Whistle Pigs, Oh my! They are all one of the 14 currently recognized species of marmots, large ground squirrels found throughout the Northern Hemisphere.
Woodchucks don't "chuck" wood, no matter what. They were possibly named by an early colonial corruption of the Cree Indian name "otcheck" which probably referred to a forest-dwelling weasel. Woodchucks live pretty stoic and solitary existences. Males and females both live alone. The males tend to mate with neighboring females, and their offspring tend to leave home before their first hibernation. In some of the more social species, adults live together in large groups of five or more.
Several woodchucks are reputed to be meteorologists. In the Northern United States, the head forecaster is Punxsutawney Phil. Down South, Beauregard Lee does all the heavy lifting. Around Lake Huron the albino Wiarton Willie sticks his paw in the air and gives a go. At least one of them tends to get it right, on occasion. Groundhog day is the only US holiday named after an animal. Thanksgiving doesn't count.
Marmots are sciurid rodents, closely related to both ground squirrels and prairie dogs. The marmots are the kings of the sciurids. All 14 species of marmots are true hibernators. During the winter their body temperature drops to a few degrees above zero. They don't keep their body temperature down all winter for they wake up every week or so for a peek and then go back into deep hibernation.
There are 15 species of marmots living in mountainous areas, such as the Alps, northern Apennines, Eurasian steppes, Carpathians, Tatras, and Pyrenees in Europe and northwestern Asia; the Rocky Mountains, Black Hills, Cascades, Pacific Ranges, and Sierra Nevada in North America; and the Deosai Plateau in Pakistan and Ladakh in India. The groundhog of North America is a lowland marmot. 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, often within rock piles, particularly in the case of the yellow-bellied marmot, and hibernate there through the winter. Marmots mainly eat greens and many types of grasses, berries, lichens, mosses, roots, and flowers. Most, like this fellow, are highly social and use loud whistles to communicate with one another, especially when alarmed.
The hoary marmot (Marmota caligata), shown in the photograph, is a species of marmot that inhabits the mountains of northwest North America. These marmots live near the tree line on slopes with grasses to eat and rocky areas for cover.
Old hoary is the largest North American ground squirrel and is often nicknamed "the whistler" for its high-pitched warning issued to alert other members of the colony to possible danger. The animals are sometimes called "whistle pigs". Whistler, British Columbia, originally named London Mountain because of its heavy fogs and rain, was renamed for these animals to help make it more marketable as a resort.
Image copyright 2014 Jon Burch Photography
Uploaded
September 24th, 2014
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