Bobak marmot

Bobak marmot
Bobak Marmot
Conservation status
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Rodentia
Family: Sciuridae
Genus: Marmota
Subgenus: Marmota
Species: M. bobak
Binomial name
Marmota bobak
(Müller, 1776)

The bobak marmot (Marmota bobak), also known as the steppe marmot, is a species of marmot that inhabits the steppes of Eastern Europe (primarily Ukraine and Russia) and Central Asia. It is also found in Belarus.[2] Thus, its range stretches from Eastern Europe to North and Central Kazakhstan,[3][4] and is particularly found between the Siversky Donets and Don Rivers (Kharkiv and Luhansk Oblasts in Ukraine and neighbouring regions in Russia) and east to Kazakhstan.

The bobak marmot is a large analog of the North American prairie dog, with a particularly round paunch and a laid-back alert posture. Unlike most other species, bobak marmots prosper on rolling grasslands and on the edge of cultivated fields. Active for about five and a half months each year, dispersers leave their natal social group after their second hibernation. Litter sizes average a little over five, and it takes at least three years to reach sexual maturity. About 60% of adult females breed in a given year. They have a single alarm call, but studies have demonstrated that bobak marmots call faster when they live in steep terrain and slower when they live in flatter terrain. Bobak marmots have served as a natural food "reservoir" that has saved many Ukrainians, Russians and Soviets from starving to death during periodic famines over the last hundred years[citation needed], and their fur is used to make hats and the occasional coat. Outside Moscow, a fur-farm is experimenting with breeding bobak marmots in captivity for captive fur production.

Like other marmots, the bobak is susceptible to infection by bubonic plague. A population of bobaks living in the Ural Mountains is believed to have served as a reservoir host for the bubonic plague epidemic that struck western Russia at the end of the 19th century.

Subspecies

Subspecies[3]:

  • M. b. bobak
  • M. b. tschaganensis

Cultural Trivia

The bobak marmot is a symbol of Luhansk Oblast, Ukraine, as is found on its coat of arms and on the coats of arms of some of its "raions" or districts.

References

  1. ^ Tsytsulina, K., Zagorodynuk, I., Formozov, N. & Sheftel, B. (2008). Marmota bobak. In: IUCN 2008. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Downloaded on 6 January 2009.
  2. ^ Wilson, D. E. & Reeder, D. M. (editors). 2005. Mammal Species of the World. A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3rd ed).
  3. ^ a b Grubb, Peter (16 November 2005). Wilson, Don E., and Reeder, DeeAnn M., eds. ed. Mammal Species of the World (3rd ed.). Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2 vols. (2142 pp.). ISBN 978-0-8018-8221-0. OCLC 62265494. http://www.bucknell.edu/msw3/browse.asp?id=12400928. 
  4. ^ Tsytsulina, K., Zagorodnyuk, I., Formozov, N. & Sheftel, B. Marmota bobak in: IUCN 2010. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2010.2
  • Thorington, R. W. Jr. and R. S. Hoffman. 2005. Family Sciuridae. Pp. 754–818 in Mammal Species of the World a Taxonomic and Geographic Reference. D. E. Wilson and D. M. Reeder eds. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore.


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