Forest-steppe marmot
Species of rodent
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The forest-steppe marmot (Marmota kastschenkoi) is a rodent species of the marmot genus found in south-central Russia.[1] It lives in wooded forest steppe at an altitude of 180–450 m (590–1,480 ft) in a relatively small region located directly east of the upper Ob River.[2] It has traditionally been considered a subspecies of the similar, more southerly distributed gray marmot (M. baibacina), but was separated mainly due to different diploid numbers.[2]
| Forest-steppe marmot | |
|---|---|
| |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Infraclass: | Placentalia |
| Order: | Rodentia |
| Family: | Sciuridae |
| Genus: | Marmota |
| Species: | M. kastschenkoi |
| Binomial name | |
| Marmota kastschenkoi Stroganov and Yudin, 1956 | |
Description
Forest-steppe marmots have a head-and-body length of 45–66 cm (18–26 in), and light individuals weigh as little as 3 kg (6.6 lb) in the spring (after hibernation) and heavy individuals as much as 8.9 kg (20 lb) in the autumn (before hibernation).[2] It hibernates for about 61⁄2 months starting in August or September.[2]
Population
In 2011, it was estimated that the forest-steppe marmot population consisted of about 14,000–16,000 individuals and had been stable over the last several decades, but earlier estimates have been both somewhat above and significantly below this figure.[2]