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Largest Marmot Species

Marmots are large, grizzled, ground-dwelling rodents that inhabit large portions of Europe, Asia and North America. With a few exceptions, they are primarily social creatures of high mountains and cold grasslands, well-suited to a life of burrowing and grazing. They rank as the largest members of the squirrel family.

Contenders
- Heavy males of some marmot species sometimes exceed 20 pounds.
  
  The largest of the marmots, on average, are those inhabiting the mountains and steppe of northwestern North America and Eurasia. These include the hoary marmot of Alaska, western Canada, Washington, Idaho and Montana; the Olympic marmot, a close relative long isolated in the high country of Washington's Olympic Mountains; the alpine marmot of European mountains; and the gray and bobak marmots of Eurasian grasslands and highlands. The heaviest marmots, typically males that have packed on pounds prior to winter hibernation, may exceed 20 pounds.
Description
- Marmots are stocky, with thickly furred tails.
  
  While fur and measurements vary among species, all marmots roughly resemble one another in general build. They are burly, short-legged rodents with relatively large, broad, furry tails that are smaller in proportion to the animal's body size than in tree squirrels. The mottled coloration of many marmot species helps them blend in with the blasted cobble, talus, billowing grasses and snowfields that define their favored landscapes. Their stockiness, body shape and habitat preference can lead to confusion with an entirely unrelated creature (and a marmot predator), the wolverine, especially when they are seen from a distance with little in the way of a scale reference.
Woodchucks
- The woodchuck is a marmot of the North American lowlands.
  
  In eastern and northern North America, a relatively large marmot inhabits lowland meadows and prairies: the famous woodchuck or groundhog. These robust rodents may exceed 14 pounds, though most are lighter. Across much of their range, they are among the biggest of native rodents, surpassed only by the American beaver (the heaviest rodent on the continent) and the North American porcupine. They resemble mountain marmots, but are often more reddish-brown or cinnamon in hue.
Habits
- Grizzly bears will excavate marmots from their burrows on mountain slopes.
  
  Marmots are mainly adapted for open country, whether it's the high, rolling steppe of Central Asia or the alpine tundra of the Cascade Range or Rocky Mountains. Lowland woodchucks live in deciduous woodlands, but are more common at forest edges and in meadows and prairies. They feed on grasses, sedges, herbs and shrubs. The animals are primarily diurnal and rarely stray far from their burrows, which affords them protection against predators such as wolves, eagles or cougars. One enemy, the grizzly bear, can dig out marmot burrows, so species in grizzly country often make their dens beneath massive boulders.

Animals & Science