Yellow-Bellied Marmot

Key Takeaways

Introduction

The Yellow-Bellied Marmot (Marmota flaviventris), also known as the rock chuck, is a fascinating creature that resides in the mountainous regions of North America.

Distribution

The Yellow-bellied marmot is an interesting animal that you can find in many places. It lives in the southwestern part of Canada and the western part of the United States. This includes Rocky Mountains and Sierra Nevada.

If you go north, you can find it in southern British Columbia. If you go east, you can find it in places like Wyoming, eastern Montana, Colorado, and southern Alberta. These are areas with lots of mountains and basins.

And if you go south, you can even find the Yellow-bellied marmot in northern New Mexico!

Habitat

The Yellow-bellied marmot likes to live in wide-open spaces. You can find it in places like steppes, meadows and talus fields. Sometimes, it even lives on the edge of deciduous or coniferous forests.

In Colorado, you can find this marmot living anywhere from as low as 1,600 m (5,400 feet) all the way up to over 4,300 m (14,000 feet) high. And in central and eastern Washington, this marmot is a common sight even at low elevations.

Physical Characteristics

Size and weight

Fully grown marmots usually weigh between 1.6 and 5.2 kg (or 3 pounds 8 ounces to 11 pounds 7 ounces). The males are usually a bit heavier than the females.

These marmots are measuring between 47 and 68 cm (or 18 and a half to 27 inches). They have a short tail that’s between 13 and 21 cm (or 5 to 8 and a half inches) long. This tail is covered with hairs that are buffy, reddish, and black in color. Their hindfoot, or back foot, measures between 7 and 9 cm (or 3 to 3 and a half inches).

Appearances

Yellow-bellied marmots have a unique look that’s a bit like frost, with some of their guard hairs showing pale tips with dark bands. Their head is broad and flat, and dark color. They also have a dark nose with a patch of white fur.

Their fur is made up of two types: long, coarse outer hairs and shorter, woolly underfurs. They have a brown coat and a white patch of fur on their snout right in front of their eyes.

What’s really cool about these marmots is the bright yellow fur on their belly, sides of the neck, and throat. This is actually where they get their name from! They have small, round ears that measure between 1.8 and 2.2 cm (or 11/16 to 7/8 inches) in length, and they have a short white muzzle.

Their back is a reddish-brown color with grizzled black and light-grey tan. Their feet can be anywhere from yellowish to dark brown in color.

Diet

Yellow-Bellied Marmots are omnivores. But they are generalist herbivore because they eat generally wide variety of plants. Their diet primarily consists of:

• Grass
• Leaves
• Grains
• Flowers
• Legumes
• Insects
• Bird eggs

Here’s an interesting fact:

When scientists gave them different types of plants to choose from, the marmots didn’t like the ones that had defensive compounds.

Behavior and Lifestyle

Yellow-bellied marmots live in groups called colonies, and these colonies usually have about 10 to 20 marmots. These marmots spend about 80% of their lives in these burrows, they spend about 60% of it in hibernating, or sleeping through the winter, in their burrows.

They also like to hang out in their burrows during the middle of the day and at night. These burrows are usually built on a slope. This could be a hill, a mountain, or even a cliff.

Reproduction

Marmots start mating when they’re about 2 years old. Each male marmot digs a burrow, which is like an underground home, as soon as it wakes up from hibernation. The male marmots start looking for female marmots to mate with. By the time summer comes around, a male marmot might find up to 4 females.

Usually, each female marmot has about three to five offsprings. But life can be tough for these little ones, and only about half of them grow up to be yearlings.

Marmots have a special way of having families. The male marmot mate with 2 or 3 females at the same time. This is called a “harem-polygynous” mating system.

The female offspring usually stay close to home, while the male offspring leave when they’re yearlings. These males will then protect one or more females of their own.

Lifespan

Yellow-Bellied Marmots can live to be up to fifteen years.

Conservation Status

According to the IUCN Red List, Yellow-Bellied Marmots are classified as “Least Concern” due to their wide distribution and stable population.

References:

1. Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow-bellied_marmot
2. Animalia: https://animalia.bio/yellow-bellied-marmot