Marmota marmotaalpine marmot

Ge­o­graphic Range

Lives 400-500m above the for­est line in the Cen­tral and West­ern Alpine moun­tains of Eu­rope.

Habi­tat

Alpine mar­mots are adapted to cold cli­mates. They are able to live in places where there is lit­tle veg­e­ta­tion. They are able to bur­row in grav­elly and frozen ground. (Nowak 1991)

Phys­i­cal De­scrip­tion

The fur color of alpine mar­mots is a mix­ture of blonde to red­dish to dark gray. Their bod­ies are plump and sturdy and stand at a height of 18cm. Body mass changes dras­ti­cally from sea­son to sea­son. Be­fore hi­ber­na­tion in the fall, the av­er­age weight of males is 4540g and that of fe­males is 4355g. In the spring­time, the av­er­age weight of males is 3000g and fe­males is 2900g. Spe­cial­ized for dig­ging, the thumb of an alpine mar­mot has a nail on it while all other dig­its have claws. (Nowak 1991, Parker 1990)

  • Average mass
    3500 g
    123.35 oz
    AnAge

Re­pro­duc­tion

Mar­mota mar­mota mates within the first few days after emer­gence from hi­ber­na­tion, which oc­curs in May. Re­pro­duc­ing is not nec­es­sar­ily an­nual and de­pends on the weight of the dom­i­nant fe­male of a group (as she is the only fe­male to re­pro­duce) after hi­ber­na­tion. Ges­ta­tion takes ap­prox­i­mately 33-34 days. Lit­ters range in num­ber of young from one to seven, each weigh­ing in around 29g at birth. Hair be­gins to grow after 5 days and eyes open around the 23rd day. After birth, the young are hid­den in bur­rows by their mother and do not exit until they are weaned (around 40 days old). Young be­come sex­u­ally ma­ture around 2 years of age. The life span of an alpine mar­mot is ex­pected to be be­tween 15 and 18 years.

(Arnold 1985, Nowak 1991)

  • Key Reproductive Features
  • gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate)
  • sexual
  • Average number of offspring
    4
    AnAge
  • Average gestation period
    35 days
    AnAge
  • Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female)
    Sex: female
    730 days
    AnAge
  • Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (male)
    Sex: male
    730 days
    AnAge

Lifes­pan/Longevity

Be­hav­ior

Alpine mar­mots are well known for their friendly dis­po­si­tions. Mar­mota mar­mota lives in mono­go­mous fam­ily groups con­sist­ing of a parental breed­ing pair and many of their off­spring (usu­ally 15-20 in­di­vid­u­als). Young are very play­ful and all ages en­gage in nose to nose greet­ings. They care for each other by groom­ing. Alpine mar­mots also have a so­cial sys­tem wherein one in­di­vid­ual sits and looks around as if on "guard-duty". If any en­e­mies are spot­ted the "guard" will warn the colony with a high-pitched whis­tle. Al­though alpine mar­mots are friendly within their fam­i­lies, they be­come hos­tile when a stranger en­ters their ter­ri­tory. The fe­male is par­tic­u­larly fe­ro­cious when it comes to guard­ing her ter­ri­tory.

An alpine mar­mot marks its ter­ri­tory by smear­ing a se­cre­tion from its cheek glands onto rocks and trees. Anal glands emit a foul-smelling sub­stance used dur­ing fights.

Home­base for alpine mar­mots is an un­der­ground bur­row, which is passed down through many gen­er­a­tions of a sin­gle fam­ily. In these bur­rows are 8-10ft tun­nels which lead to a big room called a den, where the whole fam­ily hi­ber­nates dur­ing win­ter months.

Alpine mar­mots spend all spring and sum­mer get­ting as fat as they can in prepa­ra­tion for win­ter. Around Oc­to­ber, these an­i­mals enter their bur­row and close the en­trance with hay and grass. When hi­ber­nat­ing their tem­per­a­ture drops from 97 de­grees Faran­heit to 5 de­grees Faran­heit. Breath­ing slows to 2-3 breathes per minute. Adult tem­per­a­tures are warmer than their young, so par­ents and older off­spring con­trol the tem­per­a­ture of the young by cud­dling close to them. Ther­moreg­u­la­tion also ben­e­fits adults by help­ing them to con­serve thier own en­ergy. About once every 10 days the den oc­cu­pants will wake up for a short while. This wak­ing brings up their tem­per­a­ture and keeps them from freez­ing.

(Arnold 1985, Nowak 1991, Parker 1990)

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Per­cep­tion

Food Habits

Alpine mar­mots are her­biv­o­rous, eat­ing mostly leaves and blos­soms. Be­cause they don't spend much time chew­ing, M. mar­mota prefers softer stalks in order to ease di­ges­tion. Like many ro­dents, alpine mar­mots are able to eat plants that would poi­son other mam­mals. (Nowak 1991)

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Pos­i­tive

In Ger­many, alpine mar­mots are con­sid­ered a del­i­cacy. Res­i­dents of the Alps like to use the or­ange-yel­low mar­mot teeth to dec­o­rate belts.

Con­ser­va­tion Sta­tus

Mar­mota mar­mota could po­ten­tially be­come en­dan­gered due to mas­sive hunt­ing. In Aus­tria and Switzer­land alone, 6,000 alpine mar­mots are killed an­nu­ally as tro­phies.

Other Com­ments

"Mankei fat" or mar­mot fat has long been re­garded as a re­lief for arthritic dis­com­forts. Be­cause the mar­mots live all win­ter long in moist cold dens and never show signs of rheuma­tism, alpine res­i­dents be­lieve it is their fat that must give them im­mu­nity. For around 100 years, peo­ple have rubbed mar­mot fat on thier bod­ies to re­lieve arthri­tis.

Con­trib­u­tors

Jo­hanna Lan­deryou (au­thor), Uni­ver­sity of Michi­gan-Ann Arbor.

Glossary

bilateral symmetry

having body symmetry such that the animal can be divided in one plane into two mirror-image halves. Animals with bilateral symmetry have dorsal and ventral sides, as well as anterior and posterior ends. Synapomorphy of the Bilateria.

chemical

uses smells or other chemicals to communicate

endothermic

animals that use metabolically generated heat to regulate body temperature independently of ambient temperature. Endothermy is a synapomorphy of the Mammalia, although it may have arisen in a (now extinct) synapsid ancestor; the fossil record does not distinguish these possibilities. Convergent in birds.

motile

having the capacity to move from one place to another.

mountains

This terrestrial biome includes summits of high mountains, either without vegetation or covered by low, tundra-like vegetation.

sexual

reproduction that includes combining the genetic contribution of two individuals, a male and a female

tactile

uses touch to communicate

Ref­er­ences

Arnold, W. 1985 So­cioe­col­ogy of Alpine mar­mots. Abst. 19th In­ter­na­tional Etho­log­i­cal Con­fer­ence, Uni­ver­site P. Sabatier, Toulouse (30 Nov.-2 Dec.) http://​cons-dev.​univ_ly­on1.fr/MAR­MOTTE/BIB­LIO/BibMarA.​html

Nowak, Ronald, 1991. Walker's Mam­mals of the World. Fifth edi­tion. John's Hop­kins Press, Bal­ti­more.

Parker, Sybil. 1990. Grizmek's En­cy­clo­pe­dia of Mam­mals. Vol­ume 3. Mc­Graw-Hill Inc., New York.

http://​falcon.​cc.​ukans.​edu/​~mar­mota/alpine.​html