marmots News

marmots News From AOL News

Squirrels Are Getting Fatter Now, Too (Thanks to Global Warming!)

(July 21) -- Some squirrels are getting a lot plumper than they used to be, but the root cause of their weight gain isn't what you might suspect (not saturated-fatty nuts, sorry!): It's global warming. That's the conclusion drawn in a three-decade-long study on the yellow-bellied marmots -- large ground squirrels also...

Background on marmots

The marmots are generally large ground squirrels in the genus Marmota, of which there are 15 species. Those most often referred to as marmots tend to live in mountainous areas, such as the Alps, northern Apennines, Eurasian steppes, Carpathians, Tatras, and Pyrenees in Europe and northwestern Asia; the Rocky Mountains, Black Hills, Cascades, and Sierra Nevada in North America; and the Deosai Plateau in Pakistan and Ladakh in India.

more at wikipedia »