Marmots spend half the year in a deep sleep and the other half piling on the pounds. Learn all about the cute Alpine marmot in this expert guide.
What are marmots?
The marmot is a rodent that belongs to the squirrel family.
How big are Alpine marmots
Without their tail, Alpine marmots measure 45-65cm long, with their tail adding another 15-25cm.
An adult weighs on average 6.5kg just before hibernation and 3.5kg when they emerge in early spring; 6.5kg just before hibernation.
What do Alpine marmots look like?
Alpine marmots are a large, portly rodent with a flat-topped, rounded head, small ears and prominent incisor teeth. Fur is darker on back, paler on belly, in various shades of brown, charcoal, buff and orange.
What do Alpine marmots eat?
The Alpine marmot's diet is made up of mostly plant material, including flowers, leaves and seeds, however they may also eat small quantities of insects.
Where do Alpine marmots live?
Alpine marmots live in burrows throughout the Alps, Pyrenees and Carpathian Mountains. They like montane grassland with boulders, above the tree line, and favour south-facing slopes at 1,800-2,200m.
How many marmots live in a burrow?
Alpine marmots live in underground burrows in family groups of about 15-20 individuals
Marmot hibernation
Marmots are the largest mammals to undergo true hibernation. Any marmot who fails to put on several kilos by the autumn is not likely to see next spring. By the time a typical adult is ready to hibernate, it may be 3kg, heavier than it was when it first stirred from its deep slumber, an increase equivalent to roughly 85 per cent of its body weight.
Much of this extra bulk will be stored as fat, which will be the animal's only energy source from early or mid-October through to early or mid-April.
- In late September, Alpine marmots block their burrow's side tunnels to cut draughts. They start to hibernate when the temperature inside falls to about 12°C, usually in October.
- The torpid marmots reduce their heart rate and slow their breathing, first to a few inhalations per minute, and then to none for periods of up to a minute or more. Their body temperature drops to as low as 4-8°C and may barely differ from the cool of the hibernation chamber.
- While torpid, the marmots use 8-15 times less energy than when active. Every three weeks or so, they wake for a few hours to urinate and stretch, though they move as little as possible to avoid burning fat reserves.
- If the air inside the burrow drops below 3°C, the marmots boost their metabolic rate to compensate.
- Should all go to plan, after six months they will emerge to a new Alpine spring.
Why were Alpine marmots persecuted in the past?
In the past it was believed that oil rendered from marmot grease would help to ease rheumatic pains and other human ailments. Alpine villagers would wait until autumn, then dig the sluggish marmots from their hibernation chambers to kill them at their fattest. The timing of the cull made sense from the perspective of local people (though the cure was spurious), but it now seems especially cruel.
In the process, the marmot harvesters also uncovered the bundles of vegetation with which the rodents plugged their tunnels before winter. These draught-excluders often consist of over im of compressed plant material. "The longer they are, the harder winter will be," mountain folk used to say.
Thankfully, the autumn cull has stopped, and most Alpine marmot populations seem to be healthy.
How do Alpine marmots mate?
The top male in the burrow tries to monopolise the brief burst of sexual activity that takes place underground not long after the marmots wake from hibernation.
Female marmots are receptive for just one day during their first fortnight fully awake, usually in late April. Even so a dominant male is unlikely to sire all of the colony's youngsters born about five weeks later. Possibly helped by the darkness of the tunnels, his more junior rivals ofte manage a sneaky mating.
What are baby Alpine marmots called?
Marmotton is the mellifluous French word for a young, marmot, and Marmottons are blessed with cuddle factor by the soft-toy-loud.
Juveniles are the most frequent meeters and greeters in marmot colonies. They'll spend a leat two years here, including two winters, before dispersing, so work hard to form bonds with other group members and defuse any aggression from their elders.
How long do Alpine marmots live?
Alpine marmots can live for a relatively long time, averaging 15 – 18 years.
How do marmots communicate danger?
The single whistle with which marmots signal aerial danger has the same urgency as the alarm calls that small birds use to warn of hawks, and has a ventriloquial quality. It's a crucial one for marmots, not least because in some areas these chubby mammals make up as much as go per cent of the summer diet of golden eagles.
For ground-based dangers, such as red foxes (another big threat), hikers and unleashed dogs, marmots tend to utter a longer, repeated whistle.