IT TAKES KEEN SENSES TO AVOID TROUBLE!

If you’re a marmot pup, this is a lesson you can’t learn soon enough. Marmots rely on their senses to survive; the senses of smell and hearing are acute, but their eyesight is only decent (they are nearsighted). If they had to rely only on their eyes, they would have a lot of difficulty spotting a predator in time, and there are a lot of them out there: A marmot can fall victim to a fox, coyote, badger, marten, bear, or weasel on the ground, or a hawk or eagle diving out of the sky. They’re particularly vulnerable when they have just emerged from their long hibernation (often September to May). While a big eagle has no trouble picking up a small marmot and carrying it back up to its aerie, it is no match for the Olympic marmot, which can weigh up to 20 pounds and thus significantly more than even a large bald eagle. Foxes, on the other hand, are wary of a marmot’s prominent incisors and usually prefer to wait for a young one or ambush an adult (photo).

And that brings us to lesson 2: Don’t try to make it through winter alone, especially if you’re a young animal. Yellow-bellied marmots live in colonies consisting of between 10 and 20 members and dig elaborate mazes of underground burrows. One male might have an entire harem of females in his colony along with their offspring who have not yet set out on their own. They’ll hibernate in a tight group in order to retain body warmth, and their accumulated stores of fat can usually get them through at least 200 days of hibernation.

After successfully making it through the winter, it’s time to replenish the fat stores that were depleted during the long cold months of fasting. So it’s time for lesson 3: Eat, eat, eat! While marmots prefer a vegetarian diet of grasses, herbs, and flowers, they are not averse to insects and even birds’ eggs when they can get them. When they are above ground, they will spend a great deal of time fattening up and resting in the sun during a growing season that’s rather short at their high altitude. They seem to have a preference for plants that contain high concentrations of certain essential fatty acids (like cinquefoil, dandelions, and cow parsnip). As an example, marmots love little yellow dandelion flowers so much that an absence of dandelions in a foraging area that should otherwise have an abundance is a sign marmots have been there. Studies have shown that certain polyunsaturated fatty acids in the diet of hibernating mammals, including marmots, affect their ability to thermoregulate, essentially making the animals far more resistant to very low temperatures as well as reducing their energy needs and prolonging their periods of torpor. However other fatty acids have the opposite effect. Thus marmots selectively eat plants such as dandelions that will help them hibernate more successfully. And like other rodents, marmots can safely consume some plants that would be toxic to other mammals.

The preference for dandelions is shared by another marmot species, the woodchuck (Marmota monax), aka groundhog, found in much of the eastern U.S., across Canada, and as far north as Alaska. This creature’s English name has nothing to do with either wood or chucking but rather comes from a Native American name, wuchak. The monax part comes from another Native American name for the animal, móonack, which means “digger.” Unlike the other species of marmots, the groundhog is a lowland animal and its digging is considered crucial for maintaining healthy soil and providing underground homes for other animals such as rabbits, skunks, and foxes. It has risen to national prominence in the U.S. and

Canada by virtue of Groundhog Day, which is celebrated on February 2.

Groundhogs are also unheralded heroes when it comes to research into human liver cancer induced by the hepatitis B virus. The fact that a portion of the groundhog population is infected with a virus similar to the one that causes human hepatitis B makes it the best animal available for the study of the disease in humans. And unlike the only other animal used for such studies—the chimpanzee— the groundhog is not endangered.

Moreover, research into groundhog hibernation may lead to new methods for lowering heart rate during complex surgical procedures, thereby further demonstrating that marmots’ knack for survival can help humans as well.

Life might not be a nonstop idyllic romp for the various marmot species, but life lessons and a bit of practical experience make all the difference…

YOU SMELL NICE! Marmots greet each other by putting their heads together and rubbing noses in a gesture of intimacy and trust. Other friendly behaviors include grooming and play, while aggressive behaviors (more likely among members of different colonies) include chasing and fighting.

MAKING HAY No, this marmot is not chowing down on straw; it’s carrying a bundle back to the burrow to make for a more comfortable sleep—and a warmer hibernation period.

WHEN I’M NOT WHISTLING, I SCREAM! Marmots make a whistling noise to alert others in the colony that a predator is nearby. The other animals respond by running to escape into their burrows and tunnels. The whistle also serves to inform the would-be predator: “Hey, I see you!” But marmots—which are sometimes known as “whistle pigs”—can make other noises as well, such as chattering and clicking, and they even have one that sounds like a scream. All of these noises serve to sound an alarm.

STAY NEAR THE HOME! Even though these young marmots seem focused on enjoying a snack, they can disappear into their burrow in a flash. Marmots mostly live in mountainous regions and spend well over half of their lives underground, so some species migrate between a summer and a winter burrow. Winter burrows are at a lower altitude than the ones for summer, which improves the chance of survival in a hard winter. A burrow may be 20 feet deep and has a dedicated toilet chamber.

…but it’s hard to come by above the tree line, and that creates a problem during the summer: Marmots are built to take the cold, but they can’t sweat or pant to get rid of excess body heat. On a summer day the only way to beat the heat is to retreat to their cool underground burrow.