[Some specific characteristics of the high mountain’s marmot population. Quelques caractéristiques spécifiques de la population de marmottes de montagne].

Résumé

During my many years study on marmots (Marmota sibirica Radde, 1862) and plague focus of the Ugalz mountain - a part of the Mongolian Altai I observed some specific characteristics of the spatial, genetic and physiological structure of this population. In other word, the Ugalz mountain’s marmot population was differentiated from forest-steppe’s populations by many characters of population structure. I consider that this difference between high mountain and forest-steppe marmot populations have related with the ecological difference, especially high raised location of the population. Ugalz mountain’s marmots live at the a.s.l. 2300-3100 m , the compared studied forest-steppe marmots live at the 1200-1600m. The mean body temperature of Ugalz mountain’s marmot population was lower by about 3 degrees (34.4°C) than marmots in the forest-steppe populations (34.3-37.7°C). But the body temperature of individual marmots within the high mountain’s population varied greatly in the range 25-40°C. In general, variation range of most phenotypic characters of this population was widely. The gene frequencies of the TfL allele in the Ugalz mountain’s marmot population was 2 times lower (0.1850) than the frequencies in the forest-steppe populations (0.3513-0.3929). The highest frequencies of TfM allele found in the high mountain’s population only. I have been suppose that it may be a specific allele of blood serum transferrin for the high mountain marmots. Also a lower frequencies of the AlA, Pa A and Hp F alleles were found in this population. The genetic distances (Nei’s distance: D) of this population from forest-steppe populations were D=0.0157-0.0192. The internal organization of the Ugalz mountain population was more different from others. The genetic and phenotypic characters change along vertical direction of the mountain. The marmot density of the population demonstrated an increasing trend from the base of the mountain to the peak (r=0.89 t>3). The population nucleus of the Ugalz mountain’s marmot was located on the mountain peak. The more heterogeneity group of the population was locating on the peak too. The genetic differentiation rate within the population was comparatively higher (FST= 0.021314) than others. It may be connected with vertical microclimat difference of the mountain. These characters of the marmot population which are adapted for the high mountain ecology may be the most optimal habitat for plague bacteria circulation. In other words, the marmot’s type of plague natural foci perhaps mostly locate in such natural condition or marmot populations.