Behavior and Diet
Marmots reproduce when about two years old, and may live up to an age of fifteen years. They reside in colonies of about ten to twenty individuals. Each male marmot digs a burrow soon after he wakes up from hibernation. He then starts looking for females, and by summer may have up to four female mates living with him. Litters usually average three to five offspring per female. Marmots have a "harem-polygynous" mating system in which the male defends two or three mates at the same time.
Yellow-bellied marmots are diurnal. The marmot is also an omnivore, eating grass, leaves, flowers, fruit, grasshoppers, and bird eggs.
Read more about this topic: Yellow-bellied Marmot
Famous quotes containing the words behavior and, behavior and/or diet:
“If parents award freedom regardless of whether their children have demonstrated an ability to handle it, children never learn to see a clear link between responsible behavior and adult privileges.”
—Melinda M. Marshall (20th century)
“If you are willing to inconvenience yourself in the name of discipline, the battle is half over. Leave Grandma’s early if the children are acting impossible. Depart the ballpark in the sixth inning if you’ve warned the kids and their behavior is still poor. If we do something like this once, our kids will remember it for a long time.”
—Fred G. Gosman (20th century)
“I learned from my two years’ experience that it would cost incredibly little trouble to obtain one’s necessary food, even in this latitude; that a man may use as simple a diet as the animals, and yet retain health and strength.... Yet men have come to such a pass that they frequently starve, not for want of necessaries, but for want of luxuries.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)