Hoary marmot

The hoary marmot (Marmota caligata) is a large ground-dwelling squirrel of the mountains of northwestern North America, ranging from Alaska south through northwestern Canada to Washington, Idaho and Montana. It lives on rocky talus slopes and alpine tundra, digging burrows among and under boulders where it spends about four fifths of its life, and it hibernates through the winter. Adults weigh roughly 8 to 10 kilograms and measure 45 to 57 centimetres in body length, with a black and white coat, hoary tips to the fur and the black feet that give the species its Latin name, caligata, meaning booted. Colonies are social, built around one adult male, one or more adult females and young of several ages, and the animals greet one another nose to nose and warn of danger with loud, short alarm calls. Hoary marmots are mostly herbivorous, taking vetches, sedges, fleabanes, fescues, mosses, lichens and willows on the Kenai Peninsula and flowers in mountain populations. The species is listed as Least Concern with a stable population trend.