Hoary Marmot
Marmota caligata
Hoary marmot mother and young.
The hoary marmot is an amplified version of the eastern woodchuck. It is roughly bicolor, being gray over the shoulder region and light brown over the hips. The black patch across the nose enhances its facial aspect somewhat, and the jet-black feet add a little contrast to its appearance. He has a bushy tail that he jerks about a good deal, especially when he travels. Occasionally, he is mistaken for a wolverine. His soft color pattern is an excellent example of camouflage and of this he apparently is aware as he flattens himself on a rock to escape detection.
His voice is exceptional. One day, some years ago, I walked down Savage Canyon with two companions. One of them, who stopped to photograph some flowers, was left far behind. When he finally overtook us he said that he had heard us whistling and had hurried as best he could. We said we had not whistled, but he was still sure he had heard us. Then it dawned on me that he had been hearing the loud piercing, prolonged warning whistles of the marmots that make their homes in the canyon. This whistle is one of the familiar sounds in marmot country. The approach of a fox, grizzly bear or golden eagle is announced by loud whistling which alerts everyone, including ground squirrels and mountain sheep, to be on their guard.
One day three of us watched a youngish marmot high on a sheep ridge. He was apprehensive and for a time whistled at intervals. When one of my companions whistled in the same key, the marmot answered. But if the imitation were off key there was no reply. The marmot responded as long as our patience held. This instance may have been exceptional for I have had no opportunity as yet to make additional observations.
The marmot has learned to seek a home in a rock fortress as a safeguard against being excavated by a grizzly. Whenever possible the dens are dug in rocky areas, or at rock outcrops. One den on a steep slope that I observed for several years was enlarged and renovated each year. The small rocks encountered in the digging were carried out in the mouth and dropped on the edge of the mound. In late summer, mouthfuls of dry grass are carried in for the winter hibernating nest. One look at the broad, fat marmot suggests that he could sleep a long time without food. When he retires, he may plug the entrance with rocks and mud.
The home life of the marmots has not been carefully studied but they seem to live in colonies, all using a number of dens distributed as much as 200 yards or more apart. I have seen several adults in a colony and watched them move from one den to another. In traveling between some of the dens the marmots are highly vulnerable if surprised by one of their enemies. The attractive black-eyed young require two or more years to gain the dimensions and weight of their elders.
Two excellent places to find marmots along the highway are the jumbled boulders on the east end of the Savage River bridge and in Polychrome Pass, especially on a gray, lichen-covered rock below the road and the rocky ridge across the ravine from it. If not active, the marmots may generally be seen flattened out on a rock, basking in the sunshine.
Some of the marmots in these places and also in remote areas are quite tame. I walked practically alongside one big marmot as it fed in a patch of mertensia. It gobbled up dozens of the big leaves and chewed them down lustily and noisily, scarcely regarding my presence. Accustomed to harmless mountain sheep and caribou, they sometimes apparently place humans in the same category.