Marmot

Marmot, common name for certain large, robust rodents found in North America, Europe, and Asia, characterized by a blunt snout, short ears, a short, bushy tail, and short legs. The fur is coarse. The animals live in burrows and hibernate during the winter; the length of hibernation varies with the severity of the climate. Marmots feed on vegetation and are sometimes destructive to cultivated crops. The cry of the marmot is a shrill whistle.

The common European marmot is found in the high peaks of the Alps and Pyrenees Mountains. The bobac is the marmot of eastern Europe and Asia. The common marmot of eastern North America is the woodchuck, or groundhog. This animal is gray or brown, with black or brown above and paler below. It attains a length up to 0.6 m (2 ft) and has a bushy tail up to 0.25 m (0.82 ft) long. The whistler, or hoary marmot, is a larger, white and gray species found in northwestern North America. The yellow-bellied marmot is found from southwestern Canada to New Mexico.

Scientific classification: Marmots belong to the family Sciuridae, of the order Rodentia. They make up the genus Marmota. The European marmot is classified as Marmota marmota, the bobac as Marmota bobak, and the woodchuck as Marmota monax. The whistler is classified as Marmota caligata, and the yellow-bellied marmot as Marmota flaviventris.