Tracks

Hiker's Note:
Yellow-bellied marmots have distinct yellow speckles on the sides of their necks, white between their eyes, yellow to red-yellow bellies and yellow-brown to tan, straight hair with white tips. Male marmots are heavier than females. The length of the body is 45-57 cm while the tail is 13-22 cm long. They also have a thumb stump with a nail. Melanism is widely found south of the Rocky Mountains.

The yellow-bellied marmot generally occupies open habitats such as steppes, alpine meadows, pastures, gravel-covered fields and forest edge. These marmots prefer to construct their burrows on open, grassy or herb-covered slopes. They generally occupy elevations of about 2,000 m but can be found at elevations up to 4,100 m in the Rocky Mountains.

Marmota flaviventris has 11 subspecies that populate extremely different climatic zones in western North America.

Hind print is 2-1/2 in. (6 cm.) long with 5 toe pads; fore print only shows 4 toe pads.

References