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BohoBio Bio
Hello, my name is Max, and this is my BohoBio Bio
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Name : Max the Vancouver Island Marmot
Scientific Name : Marmota vancouverensis Home : Mount Arrowsmith, Vancouver Island Favorite Food : vegetarian (herbivore), I like grasses, leaves, twigs, and the berries of local bushes Personality : sociable, chatty, active during the day, love a long sleep Best Features : warm, chocolate-colored fur, strong gnawing teeth, wonderful whistler Biggest Concerns : avoiding eagles, cougars, and wolves, getting trapped in deforested areas Shout out : Marmot Recovery Foundation Video : |
WHERE I’M FROM
Like my name says, I live on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada. Here marmots only live on the high mountains, close to the tree line at elevations above 900 meters. My home has a mixture of grasses and shrubs which serve as my food supply (I am a vegetarian). I like to play with family and friends during the day, scampering around the rocks and whistling to each other. During the night we all go into burrows that we dug to sleep.
MY RELATIVES
There are 15 different species of marmots living mostly in the northern parts of the world. I have relatives that live in Siberia, Europe, Central Asia, Alaska, Canada, Washington state and in the Northeastern United States. One famous relative of ours is the groundhog, one of whom lives in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania and in a weird ritual he is used by people there to predict how long winter will last!
TRAITS & ABILITIES
My legs are muscular, and my feet have strong claws that I use to dig my burrows. Once a burrow is completed, we take good care of it so we can use it for a long time. Some of our burrows were dug by my ancestors 30 years ago! I have thick, brown-colored fur with white patches that both keeps me warm and helps me blend in with my surroundings. If a predator does find me, I run to the nearest burrow and let out a warning whistle to my family and friends.
We eat a lot during the summer months and put on a lot of weight. By late September, I weigh around 7 kg. At that time my family and I will enter a burrow for our long, winter rest (hibernation). We sleep for 7 months, coming out at the end of April to start feeding again. I usually lose about 2 kg during hibernation.
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FAMILY LIFE
We marmots are very social and spend most of our time together in colonies of 2 – 20 marmots. These colonies are mostly our family members, but also contain unrelated members that move in from nearby colonies. Spring and summer are breeding times for us, and we go looking for partners soon after waking up from our hibernation. Females give birth to 3 or 4 pups, and they will stay with our colony until they are fully grown after 3 – 4 years.
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PRESENT & FUTURE
We used to have a large population living on mountains throughout the island, but the population started to go down in the 1980s. By 2003 there were less than 30 Vancouver Island marmots left in the wild! The main reason for this seems to be humans cutting down the forest on our mountain homes. When the trees are cut down it creates a clear area that seems to be a good home for us, so we move in. But these areas have more predators and when the trees grow back, we wind up stuck in the wrong habitat. This led to so many deaths we almost disappeared. Luckily, some people figured out that this was happening and started helping us survive. Our population has grown into the hundreds now, but we are still critically endangered. Some people, like those at Marmot Recovery Foundation, are working hard to help us survive and be able to grow our population.
