Alpine marmot
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Alpine marmot | |
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Individual in Grand Muveran Nature Reserve, Switzerland (above), and Vanoise National Park, France (below) | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Mammalia |
Order: | Rodentia |
Family: | Sciuridae |
Genus: | Marmota |
Species: | M. marmota
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Binomial name | |
Marmota marmota | |
Range in red | |
Synonyms | |
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The alpine marmot (Marmota marmota) is a large
Evolution
The alpine marmot originates as an animal of Pleistocene cold steppe, exquisitely adapted to this ice-age climate. As such, alpine marmots are excellent diggers, able to penetrate soil that even a pickaxe would have difficulty with, and spend up to nine months per year in hibernation.[4]
Since the disappearance of the Pleistocene cold steppe, the alpine marmot persists in the high altitude alpine meadow. During the colonisation of Alpine habitat, the alpine marmot has lost most of its genetic diversity through a
Description
An adult alpine marmot is between 43 and 73 cm (17–29 in) in head-and-body length and the tail measures from 13 to 20 cm (5–8 in). The body mass ranges from 1.9 to 8 kg (4.2–17.6 lb), with the animals being significantly lighter in the spring (just after hibernation) than in the autumn (just before hibernation).[6][7] The alpine marmot is sometimes considered the heaviest squirrel species, although some other marmot species have a similar weight range, making it unclear exactly which is the largest.[6][7][8] Its coat is a mixture of blonde, reddish and dark gray fur. While most of the alpine marmot's fingers have claws, its thumbs have nails.
Range and ecology
As its name suggests, the alpine marmot ranges throughout the European Alps, ranging through alpine areas of France, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Slovenia, Slovakia and Austria. They have also been introduced elsewhere with sub-populations in the Pyrenees, France's Massif Central, Jura, Vosges, Black Forest, Apennine Mountains, and the Romanian Carpathians. The Tatra marmot (Marmota marmota latirostris Kratochvíl, 1961) represents an endemic subspecies of Alpine marmot that originated during the Quaternary period. Tatra marmots inhabit Tatry Mountains and Nízke Tatry Mountains. Marmots are abundant in their core population; in the Romanian Carpathians, for example, the population is estimated at 1,500 individuals.[1] Alpine marmots prefer alpine meadows and high-altitude pastures, where colonies live in deep burrow systems situated in alluvial soil or rocky areas.[9]
Marmots may be seen "sun bathing", but actually this is often on a flat rock and it is believed they are actually cooling, possibly to deal with parasites. Marmots are temperature sensitive and an increase in temperature can cause habitat loss for the species as a whole.[10]
Diet
Alpine marmots eat plants such as
Lifestyle
When creating a
The
Hibernation
Alpine marmots survive extreme changes in weather and food shortages during winter by hibernating.
Interaction with humans
Alpine marmots were once widely hunted for food and because their fat is believed to ease rheumatism when rubbed on the skin. Hunting of the alpine marmot still occurs for sport as well as for its fat. Hunting is a danger to the species if insufficiently regulated, as they reproduce relatively slowly.[4] In general the alpine marmot is currently not in danger of extinction, but certain sub-populations of marmot may be threatened such as those in the Jura and in Germany.[1] A population in Rodna (Romania) is very small and threatened by poaching.[14]
The use of trained alpine marmots by itinerants from Savoy was a not uncommon occurrence in the late 18th century.[15] The marmot would be kept in a small box while in transit, and during a performance, the marmot would dance to the playing of an instrument, such as a hurdy-gurdy.[16] Marmots became associated with the people of Savoy, and their style of dress, and the image of a traveling Savoyard with a marmot was captured in art, such as in François-Hubert Drouais' painting The Children of the Duke of Bouillon dressed as Montagnards, and in Ludwig van Beethoven's composition, Marmotte.
References
- ^ . Retrieved 11 November 2021.
- OCLC 62265494.
- Zeitschrift für Säugetierkunde. 57 (4): 211–215. Archived from the original(PDF) on 2010-10-01. Retrieved 2010-11-13.
- ^ OCLC 671298004.
- ^ Gossmann et al., 2019, Current Biology 29, 1712–1720 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2019.04.020
- ^ a b "Alpine Marmot - Marmota marmota : WAZA : World Association of Zoos and Aquariums". Archived from the original on 2013-04-11. Retrieved 2012-06-19.
- ^ a b Kryštufek, B.; B. Vohralík (2013). "Taxonomic revision of the Palaearctic rodents (Rodentia). Part 2. Sciuridae: Urocitellus, Marmota and Sciurotamias". Lynx, N. S. (Praha). 44: 27–138.
- ^ Armitage, K.B.; Blumstein, D.T. (2002). "Body-mass diversity in marmots. Holarctic marmots as a factor of biodiversity". In K.B. Armitage; V.Yu. Rumiantsev (eds.). Holarctic Marmots as a Factor of Biodiversity. ABF Publishing House. pp. 22–32.
- ^ Preleuthner, M. 1999. Marmota marmota. In: A.J. Mitchell-Jones, G. Amori, W. Bogdanowicz, B. Kryštufek, P. J. H. Reijnders, F. Spitzenberger, M. Stubbe, J. B. M. Thissen, V. Vohralík, and J. Zima (eds), The Atlas of European Mammals, Academic Press, London, UK.
- ^ Prof. Klaus Hackländer, Biologisches Zentrum des OÖ Landesmuseums, 1999: Murmeltiere. Katalog des OÖ Landesmuseums, Neue Folge 146. 205 S.
- .
- S2CID 7990717.
- S2CID 24161764.
- ^ Popescu, A. and Murariu, D. 2001. Fauna Romaniei. Academia Romana.
- ^ Karamzin, N. and Jonas, F. D. 1957 Letters of a Russian Traveler. pg. 164. Columbia University Press.
- ^ "Standing Savoyarde with a Marmot Box". Metropolitan Museum of Art. Retrieved 30 March 2019.
External links
- Media related to Marmota marmota at Wikimedia Commons