marmot

Any of several large burrowing rodents belonging to the squirrel family. There are about 15 species, distributed throughout Canada and the USA, and from the Alps to the Himalayas. They eat plants and some insects, and live in colonies, make burrows (one to each family), and hibernate in winter (alpine marmots hibernate for six months of the year). In North America they are called woodchucks or groundhogs. (Genus Marmota, family Sciuridae.)

The rarest marmot is the Vancouver Island marmot which is found only in a limited area on Vancouver Island. The marmots are threatened by logging, and fewer than 100 remain.