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/or diet:
“To a first approximation, the intentional strategy consists of treating the object whose behavior you want to predict as a rational agent with beliefs and desires and other mental states exhibiting what Brentano and others call intentionality.”
—Daniel Clement Dennett (b. 1942)
“Newsmen believe that news is a tacitly acknowledged fourth branch of the federal system. This is why most news about government sounds as if it were federally mandated—serious, bulky and blandly worthwhile, like a high-fiber diet set in type.”
—P.J. (Patrick Jake)