Gray marmot

Gray marmot
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Rodentia
Family: Sciuridae
Genus: Marmota
Species:
M. baibacina
Binomial name
Marmota baibacina
Kastschenko, 1899

The gray marmot, grey marmot, or Altai marmot (Marmota baibacina) is a species of rodent in the squirrel family Sciuridae. It is one of the larger marmots in the genus Marmota. It occurs in mountainous grasslands and shrub lands of central Asia, and is one of the 9 Palearctic (Eurasia) species. It is found in Xinjiang Province in China, southeastern Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, and in the Altai and Tien Shan Mountains in southeastern Siberia in Russia.[2] In the Mongolian Altai, its range overlaps with that of the Tarbagan marmot.[3] Gray marmots form social groups, live in burrows, and hibernate.

  1. ^ Batbold, J.; Batsaikhan, N. & Shar, S. (2008). "Marmota baibacina". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2008. Retrieved 6 January 2009.
  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.
  3. ^ Konstantin A. Rogovin: Habitat use by two species of Mongolian marmots (Marmota sibirica and M. baibacina) in a zone of sympatry. Acta Theriologica 37 (4): 345-350. Abstract online Archived 2008-12-09 at the Wayback Machine