Yellow-bellied Marmot
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Marmota flaviventris )
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Yellow-bellied Marmot near Tokopah Falls in Sequoia National Park, California.
Photograph by Ken-ichi Ueda - used with permission.. Some rights reserved. |
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MAMMAL FACTS
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Description
Yellow-bellied Marmots are greyish brown with yellow speckles on the sides of their necks. There is some white hair between the eyes. The belly is yellow or reddish yellow. Dark colored forms arte common south of the Rocky Mountains. Yellow-bellied marmots are mainly diurnal and live on the ground, but sometimes climb into shrubs and trees. They dig burrows which can be over 1m deep. They hibernate from September - May each year in burrows that can be 5m deep.
Size
Weight: males 3 - 5kg; females 2 - 4kg. Length: males 50 - 70cm; females 47 - 67cm. Tail length: 12cm - 22cm
Environment
steppes, alpine meadows, pastures, forest fringe. They dig burrows on open grassy or herb-covered slopes
Food
Yellow-bellied marmots eat leaves, flowers and seeds from a variety of herbaceous plants and grasses. They also eat fruit, grain and sometimes insects.
Breeding
3-5 young are born in an underground burrow after a gestation period of about 30 days. The young stay in the grass-lined nest until they are about three weeks old.
Range
southwestern Canada throughout the western United States.
Classification
| Class: | Mammalia | | Order: | Rodentia | | Family: | Sciuridae | | Genus: | Marmota | | Species: | flaviventris | | Common Name: | Yellow-bellied Marmot |
Relatives in same Genus
Hoary Marmot (M. caligata)
Woodchuck (M. monax)
Olympic Marmot (M. olympus)
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