The 1993 film "Groundhog Day" is a well-known time loop narrative science fiction comedy about the protagonist who is trapped on February 2, reads the file repeatedly for no apparent reason, and tries his best to detach and can't. In the end, he changed himself and began to treat himself and others sincerely, so that he could get out of the dead loop.
The movie Groundhog Day. Image: Wikimedia Commons
The endless February 2 in the story is the so-called "Groundhog Day", a traditional festival in the United States and Canada, where people speculate about the arrival of spring based on the behavior of hibernating groundhogs on this day.
2013 Pungelsutavigni City, the United States, The Groundhog Day, of course, if you encounter a groundhog in the wild, it is not recommended that everyone cuddle like this. Image: Anthony Quintano/Wikimedia Commons
The term "groudhog" is also sometimes used to refer to Cynomys sp," the North American prairie dog, but the marmot in the film is marmota monax, the most common American marmot in the Americas, and is widely distributed in eastern and northern North America.
Marmot species in the genus Marmot
The marmot genus of the squirrel family originated in Eurasia, radiated and differentiated in North America, and then turned back to Eurasia, and is now widely distributed in the mountains of the whole northern boundary. "Marmota bobak" in the strict sense refers to the species marmota bobak, which has a wide range of historical distribution, once throughout the steppes of Eastern Europe and Central Asia, and is now mainly distributed in Kazakhstan and sporadic areas of Ukraine and Russia.
The distribution area of marmota bobak. Image credit: Darekk2/Wikimedia Commons
There are 15 species of marmots worldwide, and the degree of similarity is relatively high, generally small ears, high eye position, a large plate of teeth, a gray-brown body, plus a large tail. And because marmots are mostly active in alpine regions, their fur is thick and fat (which brings disaster to them and humans).
Marmot is the largest of the squirrel family, marmot species is also gray-brown round fat, weighing about 5 kg, body length of about 60 cm, this is the common size of marmot genus, but placed in the general small squirrel family members suddenly on the shore.
Marmota bobak photographed in Russia. Image: Petroscan/Wikimedia Commons
There are four species of marmots in China that live in alpine meadow areas, namely the grey marmot in the Altai Mountains, the long-tailed marmot in the Pamir region, the Mongolian marmot (the only species in the genus that has been rated "endangered" by the IUCN), and the Himalayan marmot, which lives in the alpine meadow area of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and its surrounding mountains.
Himalayan marmot (Marmota himalayana). Image: Courtesy of the author
The Himalayan marmot has more black hair, the top of the head and the nose and mouth are also black, which is much more recognizable than the other three marmots in China, and because of the mature tourism in Tibetan areas, the appearance rate of himalayan marmots is also much higher.
What the hell are the marmots calling?
Marmots are social social animals, they live in a mostly flat and empty environment, lack of natural shelter, often have a sentry to provide vigilance during group activities. The marmots of Central Asia need to be on constant alert to foxes and wolves on the ground, as well as large birds of prey such as golden eagles, steppe eagles and white-shouldered eagles in the sky, and natural enemies of Himalayan marmots are Tibetan foxes and snow leopards.
That's right, it's me! Image: Courtesy of the author
The sentry who spotted the situation would stand and let out a monotonous short scream to alert the busy companions in time, and the nickname "whistle pig" of the American marmot was born. Meme lovers remember a standing marmot and its enduring roar around the mountains. This well-known roaring marmot is a gray and white marmot from Alaska, North America, and western Canada, but the rough aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa The upright body of the marmot in the picture was originally in a state of chirping of the alarm.
Not the kind of sound you think!
There is a home that cannot be returned, and most of them are tears
A marmota bobak family consists of about 2 to 5 adults and 2 to 6 cubs, and when family members disperse around the cave to nibble on wild oats, wheatgrass, axle grass and other pastures, if there is a sentry alarm, the marmots will hide in the burrow.
Entrance to a Himalayan marmot cave. Photo: Li Baili
From the ground, the marmot's cave is just a weed-covered opening, but beneath this simple opening is a complex network of underground tunnels. Most of the living environment of marmots mentioned earlier lacks shelter, and the long and cold winters of grasslands and mountains, deep and complex caves must be the basis for marmots to survive. Marmots hibernate for about five and a half months a year, and during non-hibernation, they also spend 8 to 12 hours a day in the cave, and the importance of the cave is self-evident.
But to the annoyance of marmots, elaborate burrows are sometimes occupied by other animals, such as Tibetan foxes and badgers in the Qinghai-Tibet region, which will invade and borrow the caves of Himalayan marmots. Also in the Qinghai-Tibet region, the pika's burrow is often borrowed by small animals such as ground and snow finches, and the pika, like marmots, plays a role in providing habitat for other species, except that the pika and marmot burrows are different in size, and they will live in tenants of different sizes.
Another owner of a privately owned house that has been usurped for many years is the pika. Image: Courtesy of the author
The size of the marmot cave network varies with location and community size, taking the Himalayan marmot as an example, their caves are divided into temporary caves and dwelling caves, and the inhabiting caves are divided into winter caves and summer caves. The structure of the winter cave is more complex, there are many cave openings, the inner hole of the cave is paved with hay, and the internal temperature can be stabilized at 0 ~ 10 ° C.
The winter when the plague was raging
In November 2019, several cases of plague patients were found in Xilin Gol, Inner Mongolia, and for a time, this "no. 1 disease" with a high infectiousness and fatality rate returned to the public eye. Although last year's pneumonic plague case in China was not traced back to Mongolian marmots, it is difficult not to recall the plague that broke out in the northeast region from 1910 to 1911.
In the winter of 1910-1911, the plague ravaged the three eastern provinces, and the picture shows the scene of the burning of corpses. Images: Views of Harbin (Fuchiatien) taken during the plague epidemic.
At that time, laborers and merchants who had been exposed to marmot fur goods in Russia and Inner Mongolia entered the northeast, and the epidemic spread along the railway line. At that time, the Qing government had no doctors, no drugs, no funds, no venues, no enforcement capacity in the northeast, and there were also great powers that wanted to strengthen control over the northeast in the name of fighting the epidemic. Wu Liande, then chief medical officer of epidemic prevention, and Shi Zhaoji, minister of epidemic prevention, joined forces with all parties and used modern medical means and strict isolation and control to finally suppress the epidemic outside the guanxi.
There are six high-incidence areas of plague in China, the main vector of plague in Inner Mongolia is the Xieshan flea Oropsylla silantiewi, and the vector in Qinghai is also added to the axe-shaped cap flea Callopsylla dolabris, and their main parasitic animal is the marmot in the region.
Mongolian Marmot: Don't rub me if you like it! Image: Stéphane Magnenat/Wikimedia Commons
Active human contact with infected animals or bites by diseased fleas is the direct cause of human plague. Today, the transport infrastructure extends to remote areas, the remote natural foci of the past have become more accessible, and the close contact between people and the net red marmot has invisibly greatly increased the risk of plague outbreaks and long-distance transmission.
In recent years, there have been many calls for reduced exposure to wild animals, but public health issues can never be taken lightly. When we face these small and soft animals, please do not forget that the world may change in our minds.
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Source: Species Calendar
Edit: Fengyao