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The hoary marmot is a large ground squirrel, one of six marmot species in North America. The others are the familiar and widely distributed woodchuck and yellow-bellied marmot, and three lesser-known species with restricted distributions: the Arctic marmot from Alaska's Brooks Range, the Olympic marmot from the Olympic Peninsula in Washington, and the endangered Vancouver marmot from a few small localities on Vancouver Island. Hoary marmots (named for their grayish, or 'hoary' fur) live in mountainous regions in the northwestern US, Canada, and Alaska. Like all marmots they are hibernators, spending most of the year underground. Hoary marmots forage and bask in open areas and are very wary of predators, such as eagles, bears, and wolves. Hence they are often shy, but two of individuals pictured here -- a molting adult and a darker-colored yearling -- were surprisingly confiding. They were initially alert and unapproachable, but seemed to decide I was harmless and often fed, played, and even dozed with 2 meters of me during the hour or so I carefully followed them around. A major photographic issue was getting them to look at me for a nice image; another was having too much focal length (not a common problem when photographing wild animals). The location was the Savage River trail in Denali National Park in Alaska. The other two marmots were in Glacier National Park, Montana. |
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