Allgemeine Biologie und Lebensweise des Alpenmurmeltieres (Marmota marmota) [Biologie générale et moeurs des marmottes alpines].

Résumé

Recently intensified research on alpine marmots produced a huge amount of knowledge summarized in this volume to the exhibition "Murmeltiere". Alpine marmots are typical elements of the fauna of the Ice age naturally occurring today in areas of retreat where respective environmental condition persisted - at high elevation in the Alps and in the High Tatra. The most numerous marmot populations are found in altitudes of up to 200 m above local timberline. Marmots do not occur at low altitude, most likely because they meet unfavourable thermal conditions there forcing them to retreat into burrows for most of the day thus rendering sufficient accumulation of body fat for hibernation impossible. Marmots are after beavers the largest indigenous rodents. Males and females look very similar and both sexes need relatively long, about 3 years, to reach adult size. Alpine marmots are exclusively diurnal and mostly herbivorous. They live in social groups of up to 20 individuals arising from delayed dispersal of offspring. Offspring leave their natal sites earliest after reaching sexual maturity in order to search for an own territory for reproduction. The most important predators of alpine marmots are golden eagles and red foxes. Marmots signal predators and other threats by eliciting high pitched alarm calls, audible over large distances and sounding like whistles. Alarm calling is apparently quite efficient because predation is an almost negligible source of mortality, in contrast to winter. Marmots spend most of their life in self-constructed burrows. They retreat into burrows for hibernation, during night, and to escape threats and unfavourable weather conditions. It needs generations of marmots to excavate the extensive tunnel and chamber system of a large burrow. Alpine marmots have always been hunted, today still in considerable numbers in Austria and Switzerland where marmots are most common. Hunting is definitely not necessary for population control, but a matter of concern only if small populations are further decimated, if the principles of sustainable use are violated, and if, mostly because of ignorance, the peculiarities of the alpine marmot's social life are neglected.