The Daily Bucket is a regular feature of the Backyard Science group. It is a place to note any observations you have made of the world around you. Rain, sun, wind...insects, birds, flowers...meteorites, rocks...seasonal changes...all are worthy additions to the bucket. Please let us know what is going on around you in a comment. Include, as close as is comfortable for you, where you are located. Each note is a record that we can refer to in the future as we try to understand the patterns that are quietly unwinding around us.
Good morning everyone. This is diary two on my visit to Hurricane Ridge in Olympic National Park on July 1. The first diary featured a snowshoe hare rolling down a hill. A theme of our hike on the ridge was definitely striking mammal behavior. Today's diary features the Olympic Marmot.
Marmots are member of the genus Marmota in the family Sciuridae (squirrels). Most people don't think of marmots as squirrels but they are essentially over-sized ground squirrels. There are five species in North America. The one eastern species is the Groundhog or Woodchuck which lives in very different habitat from the other marmots. Interestingly, according to wikipedia the groundhog is more closely related to the Eurasian marmot species than it is to the other North American species.
All four other species are found in the montane west. The yellow-bellied marmot is found through the mountainous regions of much of the western US and into southwestern Canada. The hoary marmot occurs in Alaska, western Canada, and the far northern part of the mountains of the western U.S.
The remaining two species are occur in isolated mountainous regions in the Pacific northwest. One is the Vancouver Island marmot and the other is the Olympic Marmot found on Vancouver Island and the Olympic Peninsula respectively. Both species have declining populations and I confess that I never expected to see either species in the wild.
Much to my surprise and delight I encountered this about halfway along the hike.
A short while later I encountered this sign on the trail.
If they behave this way toward predators it is no wonder they are declining. Easy lunch of a coyote.
Later on we witnessed this intense interaction between these two marmots. Whether it was a territorial skirmish or courtship with some reluctance we were never quite sure. Sorry some of the pictures are a bit indistinct - the lighting wasn't the best.
That's it for me. What's up in your neck of the woods/mountains/ocean/suburbia//parking lot?
"Spotlight on Green News & Views" is posted every Saturday at 1:00 pm Pacific Time and Wednesday at 3:30 on the Daily Kos front page. It's a great way to catch up on diaries you might have missed. Be sure to recommend and comment in the diary.