A steppe inhabitant is a boibak. Steppe marmot, or bobak (marmota bobak) Steppe marmot brief description for children

How nice it is in the steppe in spring. Young emerald greenery and a variegated carpet of blooming herbs are pleasing to the eye; the fragrance of herbs and flowers fills the air. At such moments you forget that very little time will pass, just a couple of months, and what blooms and smells so brightly will hide underground from the summer drought and winter frosts and will wait for next spring to bloom again, when the steppe wakes up again . The first to wake up after a long winter hibernation is the steppe marmot.

Marmots begin to emerge from their holes already in March, when the snow has not yet melted. They “walk” through thawed patches, looking for tubers, bulbs and roots in the ground, and bask in the spring sun that they miss so much. After all, a bobak spends more than half its life sleeping. But this is not at all because he is lazy and slow, far from it. It’s just that his whole life is connected with the steppe, and he is perfectly adapted to life in the steppe. The steppe sleeps, and the marmot sleeps. The steppe wakes up, and the marmot is already here - standing in a column near the hole.

THRUGS INTERFERE WITH LIVING

The steppe marmot, or boibak, is a typical inhabitant of the steppe. In the recent past, it was distributed everywhere from Ukraine to Kazakhstan. The plowing of the virgin steppe has significantly reduced the number of places suitable for its habitat. And since the animals continued to be hunted for their meat, medicinal fat and skins, very soon the threat of complete extinction hung over the species. However, thanks to conservation measures and mass resettlement, the number of boibak has increased significantly. But the boibak's original habitat, the virgin European steppes, has been preserved only in some reserves.

In other places, marmots have to settle in ravines, ravines, on steep slopes and in floodplains - on those lands that cannot be plowed. Marmots prefer to live in open places, avoiding tall grass and bushes that block their view and prevent them from noticing danger in time. In the steppes on the territory of Askania-Nova, marmots have been exterminated, but work is underway to restore them.

DIET

There are no food reserves to be found in the bobak's hole - only subcutaneous fat is stored for the winter, and it is usually enough not only for the period of sleep, but also for the first time after waking up, when there is still little green grass. As soon as fresh grass appears, marmots begin to feed heavily, devoting all daylight hours to food. In between meals, boibaks like to sunbathe, sitting comfortably near the hole. On the hot days of mid-summer, marmots come out of their holes to feed only in the morning and evening, and during the day they sleep in the hole, escaping the burning rays of the sun. Animals often interrupt feeding to look around. Noticing the danger, the groundhog stands up and warns its neighbors with a loud cry.

FAMILY SHARING

Marmots are social animals; family occupies a significant place in their lives. Marmot cubs are born in June; there can be from 1 to 15 of them, but most often there are 4-6. Marmots are born naked and blind, weighing only 30-40 g. None of the rodents have such a long childhood as marmots. Their eyes open only on the 23rd day. After 40 days, young marmots begin to emerge from the hole and try grass for the first time. But the mother continues to feed the cubs milk until the age of 50 days. But even after this, the young marmots do not part with her. Before the first winter, the female protects the babies and teaches them to avoid danger. One-year-old marmots are already quite independent, but still remain in their parents' hole, learning various worldly wisdom. Observations of tagged marmots have shown that some of the cubs leave their native burrow before the second winter and move... to their neighbors. And in their place come marmots from other families. Why the marmots need such an exchange is still not known.

ADVANTAGES OF A COLONY

Each marmot family occupies a certain territory and protects it from the invasion of strangers. The size of a family plot can be from 0.5 to 6 hectares. Adult animals regularly walk around the boundaries of their possessions and leave scent marks - scent glands are located on the muzzle, on the soles of the front legs and at the base of the tail. Marmots rarely have border conflicts; neighbors usually live peacefully and even visit each other; young people from neighboring areas often start playing games together. But a strange, unfamiliar marmot is usually driven away from the site. It has been noticed that the larger the colony of marmots, the better the animals feel. Of course, the more eyes and ears there are, the easier it is to spot approaching danger.

SPECIALIZATION HOP

A reliable hole saves the marmot from enemies, the scorching sun, winter frosts and lack of food. More precisely, burrows; there are several of them on each family plot. Summer broods are not very deep, but very complexly arranged. Numerous corridors lead from the nesting chamber to the surface. From such a hole there can be 6-15 exits in different places of the site. A latrine is installed in special rooms, and all other “rooms” are never dirty. In addition, marmots regularly clean the hole, throwing out accumulated droppings and old bedding. When constructing such a complex hole, about 10 cubic meters are brought to the surface. m of soil, from which a high hill called marmot, or butane, is formed near the hole. Along with the soil, a large amount of microelements appears on the surface, and garbage and droppings thrown out of the hole additionally fertilize the soil. Herbaceous vegetation is rapidly developing on the marmots. Often plants settle here that would not be able to germinate among the steppe felt, but thrive in the ground dug up by marmots. Among the sun-dried steppe, marmots stand out as green grass plantations. In places where many marmots live, towering butans give the steppe a characteristic appearance.

On the family plot there are usually several feeding holes - temporary shelters where marmots take refuge if danger catches them while feeding far from the main hole. The winter hole is also quite simple, but very deep - the cold should not reach it even in the most severe winter. Sometimes marmots have to make a “bedroom” at a depth of 5-7 m. In such burrows there is no nesting chamber and usually only one entrance. At the end of September, marmot families gather in a wintering hole, tightly close the entrances with plugs made from a mixture of soil, stones and their own droppings and fall asleep until spring.

Baibak is an inhabitant of the virgin steppes of Eurasia; in Russia it can be found in the Rostov, Voronezh, Saratov and Ulyanovsk regions, as well as in Chuvashia, Tatarstan and Bashkiria. Baibak is one of the largest squirrels: its body length is 50-70 cm, the weight of males reaches 6.1 kg. The bobak spends the winter in deep hibernation, does not store reserves for the winter, but before hibernation it feeds intensively, doubling its weight in two to three months. The holes are well covered with earthen plugs.

It feeds on succulent and soft plant foods. Their favorite plants are wild oats, wheatgrass, chicory, and clover. The bobak eats up to 1-1.5 kg of plant mass per day. He usually does not drink water, content with the moisture contained in plants or morning dew. It also consumes animal food - locusts, caterpillars, usually eating them along with grass.

In March - April, the bobaks begin their mating season. Pregnancy lasts 30-35 days; Usually there are 3-6 cubs in a litter. Newborn marmots are naked and blind, 9-11 cm long and weighing 30-40 g. Their eyes open only on the 23rd day. During pregnancy and milk feeding, the male moves to another burrow. The female feeds milk for up to 50 days. At the end of May, marmots already begin to eat grass.

Baibak, escaping from pursuit, runs quite quickly, reaching a speed of 12 - 15 km/h on flat areas, and tries to hide in the nearest hole. This animal needs protection.

: its body length is 50-70 cm, the weight of fattened males reaches 10 kg. The body of the boibak is thick, with short, strong legs armed with large claws. The head is large, flattened, the neck is short.

The bobak is easily distinguished from other marmots by its short tail (no more than 15 cm) and uniform sandy-yellow color. Due to the dark tips of the guard hairs, its back is covered with dark brown or black ripples, condensing at the back of the head and on the top of the head. Cheeks light reddish; brown or black streaks under the eyes. The belly is noticeably darker and redder than the sides; the end of the tail is dark brown. There are albino marmots. Boibaks molt once a year; begins in May and ends (in old marmots) by the end of August, sometimes dragging on until September.

Spreading

In the past, boibak was widespread throughout the steppe and partly forest-steppe zone from Hungary to the Irtysh (absent in the Crimea and Ciscaucasia, but currently boibak is observed in the steppe part of Crimea, on the Tarkhankut Peninsula), but under the influence of the plowing of virgin lands it disappeared almost everywhere, surviving only in areas of untouched virgin land on the Don, in the Middle Volga region, the southern Urals and in Kazakhstan. Now the bobak lives in the Rostov, Volgograd regions, Belgorod, Voronezh (Stone Steppe between the Bityug and Khopyor rivers), Kursk region, Samara region, in the northeast of the Saratov, in the south of the Ulyanovsk and Nizhny Novgorod regions, as well as in Chuvashia, Tatarstan and Bashkortostan . On the territory of Ukraine it is found in several isolated foci in Lugansk, Sumy (Romny district), Kharkov and Zaporozhye regions. Beyond the Urals and Northern Kazakhstan, its range is less fragmented; here boibak is found from the river. Ural to Irtysh: in the Orenburg and Chelyabinsk regions, in the south of the Omsk region of Russia, in the northern part of the West Kazakhstan, western part of the Aktobe, Kustanay, North Kazakhstan, in the north of the Karaganda and East Kazakhstan regions of Kazakhstan.

Lifestyle and nutrition

Baibak is a natural inhabitant of lowland grass-forb steppes. If the steppe is plowed, marmots soon go to the nearest virgin land or, in extreme cases, to “inconvenient” areas: fallow lands, unplowed slopes of ravines, gullies, river valleys, boundaries, pastures, and even to the sides of country roads. Areas suitable for boibak habitat now make up a small proportion of arable land. It is uncharacteristic for it to live in grain and vegetable crops; In such places, the boibak settles temporarily and forcedly. It lingers for longer periods on perennial grass crops. Moderate grazing and close proximity to humans do not affect it.

Boibaks live in large, perennial colonies, making burrows of various purposes and complexity for housing. Protective (temporary) burrows are small, short, with one entrance, without a nesting chamber; Marmots hide in them from danger and occasionally spend the night. The marmot has up to 10 such burrows within its feeding area. Permanent burrows are more complex and can be winter or summer. Summer (brood) burrows are a complex system of passages; they are connected to the surface by several (up to 6-15) exits. A series of holes or dead ends branch off from the main passage of the burrow, in which marmots build latrines. At a depth of 2-3 m there is a nesting chamber with a volume of up to 0.5-0.8 m³, into which the marmot drags dry grass and roots. Winter (wintering) burrows can be simpler, but the nesting chambers in them are located deeper, in non-freezing soil horizons - up to 5-7 m from the surface. There are also summer-winter burrows. The total length of the passages and burrows of a permanent burrow reaches 57-63 m. In particularly complex burrows there are several chambers of different sizes, and the passages form several floors. When constructing a permanent burrow, up to ten cubic meters of soil are thrown onto the surface, forming a marmot hill. Usually, marmot stands out sharply against the background of steppe chernozem with a lighter color; The soil here is drier, saturated with nitrogen and minerals from marmot droppings. The height of the hill reaches 40-100 cm with a diameter of 3-10 m. On the marmot, near the inhabited burrow, there is a trampled area from where marmots inspect the surroundings. The rest of the marmot is gradually covered with vegetation that is very different from the surrounding flora: wormwood, wheatgrass, and kermek grow here. In places densely populated by marmots, up to 10% of the surface is covered with marmots, which is why the landscape takes on a peculiar wavy character.

Nutrition

Boibaks feed on plant foods. Their favorite plants are wild oats ( Avena sativa), wheatgrass ( Agropyrum cristatum), chicory ( Cichorium intybus), clover ( Trifolium repens) and field bindweed ( Convolvulus arvensis); Vegetable and agricultural crops are rarely damaged. Feeding specialization is seasonal and consists in the preference for different parts of the plant. Thus, in early spring, marmots eat mainly overwintered rhizomes and bulbs; in summer - young sprouts of cereals and herbs, as well as flowers. In the second half of summer, when the steppe vegetation burns out, boibaks move further and further from their burrows in search of wet areas with lush grass. Ripe fruits and seeds in their stomachs are not digested, scattering along with the droppings. During the day of fattening, the bobak eats up to 1-1.5 kg of plant mass. He usually does not drink water, content with the moisture contained in plants or morning dew. It also consumes animal food - locusts, mollusks, caterpillars, ant pupae, usually eating them along with grass. However, in captivity, marmots willingly eat meat, including the meat of their relatives, although in nature they do not feed on vertebrates. The bobak does not make any reserves for the winter.

Lifestyle

Boibaks emerge from hibernation at the end of February - beginning of March. Having fattened up a little, they begin to repair or dig new protective holes; later - to correct and expand residential burrows. Activities begin at sunrise, when the animals wake up and go to feed. On the surface, marmots maintain visual (postures in a column) and sound (roll call, danger signal) communication. Usually two marmots in a colony act as sentinels while the others feed. The marmot's hearing is less developed than its vision, so the main signal of danger is not so much a whistle as the sight of a relative running towards the hole. Seeing this, other marmots also rush to the holes, even if there was no scream. At noon, bobbacks usually rest in their burrows, and in the evening they go out to feed again. They spend 12-16 hours on the surface of the earth.

The marmot moves in fits and starts, sometimes stopping and freezing in place. Fleeing from pursuit, it runs quite quickly, reaching a speed of 12 - 15 km/h on flat areas, and tries to hide in the nearest hole.

In March-April, the bobaks begin their mating season. Pregnancy lasts 30-35 days; Usually there are 3-6 cubs in a litter. Newborn marmots are naked and blind, 9-11 cm long and weighing 30-40 g (this is about 1% of the mother’s weight). Their eyes open only on the 23rd day. During pregnancy and milk feeding, the male moves to another burrow. The female feeds milk for up to 50 days, although at the age of 40 days, in late May - early June, marmots already begin to eat grass. It was previously believed that marmot families consisted of parents and two broods of young children. But observations of tagged animals have shown that some of the yearlings leave their family and settle in other families as foster children, and their parents, in turn, accept other people’s cubs. Marmots stay with their parents until next summer, after which they build their own burrows. But they also spend the second wintering with their parents. In general, marmots have a peaceful character; they rarely fight and only drive away alien animals.

By the end of summer, the marmot accumulates up to 800-1200 g of fat, which amounts to 20-25% of its weight. Animals leave their burrows less and less; they renew nests by dragging dry grass into them. At the end of August - September (no later than the 20th), marmots gather in wintering burrows in groups of 2-5 to 20-24 individuals. They clog all the entrances to the burrow with dense plugs made from a mixture of feces, earth and stones and fall into deep hibernation, which lasts 6-8 months. The air temperature in the burrow, even in severe frosts, does not drop below 0 °C. During hibernation, the life processes of marmots almost freeze: body temperature drops from 36-38 to 4.6-7.6 °C, breathing slows down to 2-3 breaths per minute instead of the normal 20-24, and heartbeat - to 3-15 beats per minute instead of 88-140. In winter, marmots do not eat and hardly move, subsisting on stored fat reserves. However, since energy expenditure during hibernation is low, in the spring marmots often wake up quite well-fed, with a reserve of 100-200 g of fat.

Number

Due to the plowing of the steppes, reforestation and intensive fishing, the number of boibaks increased by decreased sharply. The situation was most critical in the 40-50s. XX century, but the protection measures taken ensured the conservation of the species in local foci in Ukraine, the Ulyanovsk and Saratov regions, Tatarstan and its subsequent re-acclimatization and introduction in a number of regions. In recent decades, the range has begun to expand and the number of bobak to grow. The most numerous bobak are in the Rostov and Ulyanovsk regions. The colonies of its Kazakhstan subspecies are quite stable in the Orenburg and Chelyabinsk regions. The number of the European subspecies of boibak in the city reached 209,700 individuals, the Kazakh subspecies - 112,800 individuals. Despite the permission of licensed hunting in the Central, Volga and Southern Federal Districts, the number of bobak continues to grow. In the Omsk region, the animal is listed in the Red Book.

Baibak is hunted for its warm and light fur. Its meat is edible (it is highly prized in some areas of Mongolia), and the fat has been used in technology and folk medicine. For agriculture, boibak is practically harmless - it rarely touches cultivated plants; occasionally eats alfalfa and sunflower. In gardens raised in marmot colonies, they sometimes eat cabbage and aerial parts of carrots. Baibak is a popular object of special hunting - Varminting, in which shooting is carried out from a long distance from a special weapon.

Symbolism

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Excerpt characterizing Baybak

“I think not,” he said, “but yes.” She doesn't deserve to be smart... No, she's charming, and nothing more. – Princess Marya again shook her head disapprovingly.
- Oh, I so want to love her! You will tell her this if you see her before me.
“I heard that they will be there one of these days,” said Pierre.
Princess Marya told Pierre her plan about how, as soon as the Rostovs arrived, she would become close to her future daughter-in-law and try to accustom the old prince to her.

Boris did not succeed in marrying a rich bride in St. Petersburg and he came to Moscow for the same purpose. In Moscow, Boris was indecisive between the two richest brides - Julie and Princess Marya. Although Princess Marya, despite her ugliness, seemed more attractive to him than Julie, for some reason he felt awkward courting Bolkonskaya. On her last meeting with her, on the old prince’s name day, to all his attempts to talk to her about feelings, she answered him inappropriately and obviously did not listen to him.
Julie, on the contrary, although in a special way peculiar to her, willingly accepted his courtship.
Julie was 27 years old. After the death of her brothers, she became very rich. She was now completely ugly; but I thought that she was not only just as good, but even much more attractive than she was before. She was supported in this delusion by the fact that, firstly, she became a very rich bride, and secondly, that the older she became, the safer she was for men, the freer it was for men to treat her and, without taking on any obligations, take advantage of her dinners, evenings and the lively company that gathered at her place. A man who ten years ago would have been afraid to go every day to the house where there was a 17-year-old young lady, so as not to compromise her and tie himself down, now went to her boldly every day and treated her not as a young bride, but as a acquaintance who has no gender.
The Karagins' house was the most pleasant and hospitable house in Moscow that winter. In addition to parties and dinners, every day a large company gathered at the Karagins, especially men, who dined at 12 o'clock in the morning and stayed until 3 o'clock. There was no ball, party, or theater that Julie missed. Her toilets were always the most fashionable. But, despite this, Julie seemed disappointed in everything, telling everyone that she did not believe in friendship, nor in love, nor in any joys of life, and expected peace only there. She adopted the tone of a girl who had suffered great disappointment, a girl as if she had lost a loved one or had been cruelly deceived by him. Although nothing of the sort happened to her, they looked at her as if she were one, and she herself even believed that she had suffered a lot in life. This melancholy, which did not prevent her from having fun, did not prevent the young people who visited her from having a pleasant time. Each guest, coming to them, paid his debt to the melancholy mood of the hostess and then engaged in small talk, dancing, mental games, and Burime tournaments, which were in fashion with the Karagins. Only some young people, including Boris, delved deeper into Julie’s melancholic mood, and with these young people she had longer and more private conversations about the vanity of everything worldly, and to them she opened her albums covered with sad images, sayings and poems.
Julie was especially kind to Boris: she regretted his early disappointment in life, offered him those consolations of friendship that she could offer, having suffered so much in life, and opened her album to him. Boris drew two trees in her album and wrote: Arbres rustiques, vos sombres rameaux secouent sur moi les tenebres et la melancolie. [Rural trees, your dark branches shake off darkness and melancholy on me.]
Elsewhere he drew a picture of a tomb and wrote:
"La mort est secourable et la mort est tranquille
“Ah! contre les douleurs il n"y a pas d"autre asile".
[Death is salutary and death is calm;
ABOUT! against suffering there is no other refuge.]
Julie said it was lovely.
“II y a quelque chose de si ravissant dans le sourire de la melancolie, [There is something infinitely charming in the smile of melancholy," she said to Boris word for word, copying this passage from the book.
– C"est un rayon de lumiere dans l"ombre, une nuance entre la douleur et le desespoir, qui montre la consolation possible. [This is a ray of light in the shadows, a shade between sadness and despair, which indicates the possibility of consolation.] - To this Boris wrote her poetry:
"Aliment de poison d"une ame trop sensible,
"Toi, sans qui le bonheur me serait impossible,
"Tendre melancolie, ah, viens me consoler,
“Viens calmer les tourments de ma sombre retraite
"Et mele une douceur secrete
"A ces pleurs, que je sens couler."
[Poisonous food for an overly sensitive soul,
You, without whom happiness would be impossible for me,
Tender melancholy, oh, come and comfort me,
Come, soothe the torment of my dark solitude
And add secret sweetness
To these tears that I feel flowing.]
Julie played Boris the saddest nocturnes on the harp. Boris read Poor Liza aloud to her and more than once interrupted his reading from the excitement that took his breath away. Meeting in a large society, Julie and Boris looked at each other as the only indifferent people in the world who understood each other.
Anna Mikhailovna, who often went to the Karagins, making up her mother’s party, meanwhile made correct inquiries about what was given for Julie (both Penza estates and Nizhny Novgorod forests were given). Anna Mikhailovna, with devotion to the will of Providence and tenderness, looked at the refined sadness that connected her son with the rich Julie.
“Toujours charmante et melancolique, cette chere Julieie,” she said to her daughter. - Boris says that he rests his soul in your house. “He has suffered so many disappointments and is so sensitive,” she told her mother.
“Oh, my friend, how attached I have become to Julie lately,” she said to her son, “I can’t describe to you!” And who can not love her? This is such an unearthly creature! Ah, Boris, Boris! “She fell silent for a minute. “And how I feel sorry for her maman,” she continued, “today she showed me reports and letters from Penza (they have a huge estate) and she is poor, all alone: ​​she is so deceived!
Boris smiled slightly as he listened to his mother. He meekly laughed at her simple-minded cunning, but listened and sometimes asked her carefully about the Penza and Nizhny Novgorod estates.
Julie had long been expecting a proposal from her melancholic admirer and was ready to accept it; but some secret feeling of disgust for her, for her passionate desire to get married, for her unnaturalness, and a feeling of horror at renouncing the possibility of true love still stopped Boris. His vacation was already over. He spent whole days and every single day with the Karagins, and every day, reasoning with himself, Boris told himself that he would propose tomorrow. But in the presence of Julie, looking at her red face and chin, almost always covered with powder, at her moist eyes and at the expression of her face, which always expressed a readiness to immediately move from melancholy to the unnatural delight of marital happiness, Boris could not utter a decisive word: despite the fact that for a long time in his imagination he considered himself the owner of Penza and Nizhny Novgorod estates and distributed the use of income from them. Julie saw Boris's indecisiveness and sometimes the thought occurred to her that she was disgusting to him; but immediately the woman’s self-delusion came to her as a consolation, and she told herself that he was shy only out of love. Her melancholy, however, began to turn into irritability, and not long before Boris left, she undertook a decisive plan. At the same time that Boris’s vacation was ending, Anatol Kuragin appeared in Moscow and, of course, in the Karagins’ living room, and Julie, unexpectedly leaving her melancholy, became very cheerful and attentive to Kuragin.
“Mon cher,” Anna Mikhailovna said to her son, “je sais de bonne source que le Prince Basile envoie son fils a Moscou pour lui faire epouser Julieie.” [My dear, I know from reliable sources that Prince Vasily sends his son to Moscow in order to marry him to Julie.] I love Julie so much that I would feel sorry for her. What do you think, my friend? - said Anna Mikhailovna.
The thought of being a fool and wasting this whole month of difficult melancholy service under Julie and seeing all the income from the Penza estates already allocated and properly used in his imagination in the hands of another - especially in the hands of the stupid Anatole, offended Boris. He went to the Karagins with the firm intention of proposing. Julie greeted him with a cheerful and carefree look, casually talked about how much fun she had at yesterday's ball, and asked when he was leaving. Despite the fact that Boris came with the intention of talking about his love and therefore intended to be gentle, he irritably began to talk about women's inconstancy: how women can easily move from sadness to joy and that their mood depends only on who looks after them. Julie was offended and said that it was true that a woman needs variety, that everyone will get tired of the same thing.
“For this, I would advise you...” Boris began, wanting to tell her a caustic word; but at that very moment the offensive thought came to him that he could leave Moscow without achieving his goal and losing his work for nothing (which had never happened to him). He stopped in the middle of his speech, lowered his eyes so as not to see her unpleasantly irritated and indecisive face and said: “I didn’t come here at all to quarrel with you.” On the contrary...” He glanced at her to make sure he could continue. All her irritation suddenly disappeared, and her restless, pleading eyes were fixed on him with greedy expectation. “I can always arrange it so that I rarely see her,” thought Boris. “And the work has begun and must be done!” He blushed, looked up at her and told her: “You know my feelings for you!” There was no need to say any more: Julie’s face shone with triumph and self-satisfaction; but she forced Boris to tell her everything that is said in such cases, to say that he loves her, and has never loved any woman more than her. She knew that she could demand this for the Penza estates and Nizhny Novgorod forests and she got what she demanded.
The bride and groom, no longer remembering the trees that showered them with darkness and melancholy, made plans for the future arrangement of a brilliant house in St. Petersburg, made visits and prepared everything for a brilliant wedding.

Count Ilya Andreich arrived in Moscow at the end of January with Natasha and Sonya. The Countess was still unwell and could not travel, but it was impossible to wait for her recovery: Prince Andrei was expected to go to Moscow every day; in addition, it was necessary to purchase a dowry, it was necessary to sell the property near Moscow, and it was necessary to take advantage of the presence of the old prince in Moscow to introduce him to his future daughter-in-law. The Rostovs' house in Moscow was not heated; in addition, they arrived for a short time, the countess was not with them, and therefore Ilya Andreich decided to stay in Moscow with Marya Dmitrievna Akhrosimova, who had long offered her hospitality to the count.
Late in the evening, four of the Rostovs' carts drove into Marya Dmitrievna's yard in the old Konyushennaya. Marya Dmitrievna lived alone. She has already married off her daughter. Her sons were all in the service.

What are marmots, or so-called boibaks? Small settlements of these furry animals with an unusually funny whistle and an interesting way of life are quite often found in the steppe.

Habitats

A representative of the rodent order, the marmot (baibak) is the oldest inhabitant of the steppes of Asia and Europe. Today, their numbers have noticeably decreased due to active human activity, such as the plowing of steppe territories. These live in separate areas in Kazakhstan, Ukraine, the Middle Volga region, as well as in the southern regions of the Urals - from the Urals to the Irtysh.

During the Soviet years, during the development of virgin lands, as well as during the implementation of measures against the plague, the number of marmots decreased quite significantly. And only in the last decade has it begun to grow. Nowadays, nature reserves have been organized in some areas where boibaks live. They play a huge role in protecting these animals.

Lifestyle

The marmot (baibak) is a fairly large rodent of a yellowish-red color, weighing up to 10 kg and a body length of about 70 cm. These animals live in burrows, the depth of which sometimes reaches 2 m. From September to March, marmots hibernate. The rest of the year they are on the surface of the earth from sunrise to sunset.

While eating, a pair of animals, standing on their hind legs, observe the area. And when enemies appear, they inform all their relatives and hide in holes. Boibaks feed on insects and plants such as wild oats, clover, wheatgrass, etc. The animal eats up to 1 kg of food per day. He practically does not drink water. The average lifespan of boibaks is about 10 years. The main enemies of these animals are wolves, birds of prey and humans.

Valuable fishery

In addition to being very funny and interesting, the marmot (baibak) is also a very valuable game animal. The skin of these animals well imitates the appearance of expensive furs, and therefore is in great demand. During international fur auctions, marmot skins are sold out quickly, and at a considerable price. A bobak fur coat will be a wonderful gift for a woman. When catching an animal, it is very important not to spoil its skin.

In addition, from one adult animal you can get about 2 kg of tender meat and about 1 kg of valuable fat. This is also why the steppe marmot (baibak) is highly valued. The fat of this animal, obtained in the autumn, is used not only for technical purposes, but is also widely consumed as a high-calorie food product. In addition, it is a proven medicine in the fight against tuberculosis and anemia. Also very effective for various traumatic injuries.

Hunting

The hunt for marmot (baibak) begins in mid-July and continues almost until the end of August. This entire process takes place in the open steppe or in harvested grain fields. Finding rodents is not difficult. Hills up to 70 cm high above the burrows reveal their habitats.

They hunt the groundhog more often with a gun. Catching these animals with traps is considered illegal in many countries. Most hunters hunt bobak for sport, and not to get its fat, thick fur or tasty meat. However, in any case, hunting this animal requires a sharp eye and reliable weapons. At the beginning of the hunting season, when the marmot (baibak) is not particularly timid, many manage to sneak up on it and shoot with a smoothbore gun. However, mostly all this happens in the presence of rifled weapons. Shooting at a marmot is also possible with rimfire cartridges of 5.6 caliber (small), as well as with large-caliber weapons. When the hunter shoots, the boibak hides in the steppe grass while lying down.

Marmots are a genus of rodents from the squirrel family, numbering 15 species. The closest relatives of marmots are ground squirrels and prairie dogs, and more distant relatives are squirrels and chipmunks. Marmots stand out for their large size both among their relatives and among rodents in general. Their ability to hibernate (“sleeps like a marmot”) is widely known, but many aspects of biology remain unknown to a wide range of nature lovers.

Himalayan marmots (Marmota himalayana).

In general, marmots are similar in build to squirrels and gophers. They have a ridged body, relatively short legs, and the length of the hind legs is not much greater than the length of the front ones. What they have in common with squirrels is the excellent quality of their fur - thick and long, with sparse guard hairs and a soft, warm undercoat. But they also have peculiar structural features. The marmots' skull is somewhat flat, and their widely spaced eyes sometimes look slightly slanted. The nose is relatively large. The ears are short, round and barely protrude from the fur. The tail is shorter than that of squirrels, and in marmots it is not flat, but rounded in cross section and not covered with long hair. All this indicates the terrestrial lifestyle of these animals. But the main thing that allows you to distinguish a marmot from other rodents even at a great distance is its size. Even the smallest species (Menzbier's marmot, wood marmot) weigh at least 2-3 kg and reach a length of 35-40 cm, and the largest (steppe, Himalayan marmot) weigh up to 8-10 kg and reach a length of 65-70 cm. The coloring of all species is protective, monochromatic or with a contrastingly colored abdomen, cheeks, and head. The coat color of different species is yellowish-gray, silver-gray, brown, reddish-red, and some parts of the body may be black.

Marmots live only in the Northern Hemisphere, but here they spread very widely. These animals are found in almost all steppe and mountain zones of Eurasia and North America. In the north, their range in some places borders on the tundra and taiga (in Siberia, in the American Rockies), in the south - on the deserts of Central Asia, in the west of Eurasia, the range of marmots reaches Western Europe (the Alps), and in the east it reaches the shores of the Pacific Ocean. Moreover, all types of marmots can be divided into two groups: steppe and mountain. Outwardly, there are no fundamental differences between them; the ranges of species of each group may overlap each other, but species from different groups never meet each other. Steppe marmots inhabit vast treeless spaces, clearly preferring flat rather than rugged terrain. These animals do not like it when anything limits their view; the only exception is the woodchuck, which really does not disdain to settle on the edges of the forest in the foothills. Mountain marmots, on the contrary, inhabit the uppermost zone of the mountains. But even here they avoid forest plantations and obvious steep slopes, preferring alpine meadows.

The yellow-bellied marmot (Marmota flaviventris) is a typical mountain species inhabiting cliffs and rocky outcrops.

A yellow-bellied marmot collects grass to make a burrow.

All species of marmots are colonial animals. They live in pairs, with the male and female remaining faithful to each other for several years. This kind of monogamy is rare in rodents. Usually their single children also live with their parents, so in fact each couple represents a whole family. The colony consists of several families located at a distance of several tens and hundreds of meters from each other. All family members maintain friendly relations, the young often play with each other and with their parents, conflicts with neighbors in the colony are also very rare, but the marmots drive away aliens from other places. A spirit of mutual assistance reigns in the colony; during feeding and other activities, the marmots monitor the situation and observe the surroundings. As soon as a predator appears, a sound signal immediately follows - a piercing whistle like a “puff-puff”. At this sound, all members of the colony immediately hide in holes; the sight of a fleeing fellow has an even stronger effect on the animals (their vision is better developed than hearing). It should be said that marmots, on the one hand, demonstrate great caution characteristic of all rodents (sometimes bordering on alarmism); on the other hand, these animals are distinguished by more developed intelligence than gophers and squirrels. In places where they are little disturbed, you can notice features of imposingness in their behavior: marmots can allow themselves to lounge in the sun and take a nap, only occasionally lazily looking around the surroundings.

The steppe marmot, or bobak (Marmota bobak), takes a sunbath. The animal gained fat before hibernation and looks well-fed.

Although marmots are generally sedentary animals, they can sometimes move up to tens of kilometers. Young animals disperse in search of a place for their own burrow, and less often, entire colonies in the event of the death of a burrow town (for example, during flooding, plowing of land). All marmots are characterized by seasonal activity. In the summer they reproduce and accumulate fat reserves, and in the winter they hibernate. The proverb “sleeps like a groundhog” very accurately characterizes the behavior of these animals. The marmot's hibernation is the longest in the animal world. Depending on the climate of the area, it can last from 5-6 to 9 months a year; marmots spend 70% of their lives sleeping! During hibernation, the groundhog's pulse slows down to several beats per minute, body temperature drops to 4-8°C, and it is impossible to wake him up in the usual way. The stimulus for awakening is an increase in ambient temperature, but even at this the marmots are still inactive for some time and look sleepy. Marmots sleep not only long and soundly, but also sweetly; in their sleep they can sniffle and snore. These animals hibernate together: all members of the family, and sometimes the entire colony, sleep in the same chamber, sometimes in two rows on top of each other.

Interestingly, in nature these animals do not react to temporary warming, so winter thaws are not able to disturb their sleep rhythm. This may be due to the fact that marmots sleep in deep burrows, and therefore react only to persistent, prolonged warming of the soil and air deep in the burrow. This feature has been used since ancient times to predict the weather and sowing time; on its basis, a holiday arose in the United States - Groundhog Day. It is celebrated annually on February 2, on this day the groundhog is pulled out of the hole and “determined” whether he sees his shadow or not. If the day is sunny, then the groundhog, “seeing the shadow,” hides in a hole, which means there will be another 6 weeks of winter. If the day is cloudy, then the groundhog “does not see the shadow,” which means the arrival of spring. Naturally, such a ritual has nothing to do with the laws of nature and does not convey any real information. In fact, the basis of the tradition is the Christian holiday of Candlemas (according to the Gregorian calendar), which not only in the United States, but also in Europe has long symbolized the arrival of spring. The domesticated marmots used in the ceremony live in artificial houses, so their behavior is in no way related to the weather.

Phil the groundhog sits on the back of his keeper John Griffiths in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. This city is considered the birthplace of Groundhog Day; the tradition of celebration has been maintained here since 1887, and all Punxsutawney meteorological groundhogs bear the name Phil.

In order to spend so much time hibernating, marmots need large reserves of nutrients. Animals store them in the form of fat, the mass of which in the fall can reach 20-25% of the total body weight. In fact, the entire summer period is fattening and preparation for hibernation. The animal can eat up to 250 g of food per day. Marmots feed on a variety of plant foods: fresh grass, buds, rhizomes, bulbs, flowers - their diet includes up to a hundred species of plants. However, in each period of the year these animals show great selectivity, for example, in the spring they eat almost exclusively underground parts of plants. Unlike other rodents, marmots are completely indifferent to seeds and grains; even when eating these parts, they are not digested and come out intact with the droppings. But marmots with grass often eat pupae of ants, locusts, grasshoppers, caterpillars, and snails, which provide them with the necessary amount of protein. In captivity, these animals can even eat meat (including their own relatives), but cannibalism and predation are not characteristic of them.

Compared to other rodents, marmots are not fertile. They breed once a year, the breeding season begins soon after awakening and mating occurs in burrows even before the marmots come to the surface. Moreover, only 13-80% of females participate in mating. In different areas this occurs in March-April. Pregnancy lasts 30-35 days. The female brings from 1-3 to 4-5 cubs and feeds them with milk for about 50 days. Marmots begin to try their first grass at the age of 40 days, but for the first few months they are strongly attached to their parents and do not move away from the hole. Having learned to hide from predators, they begin to lead the same lifestyle as adults, but continue to live in a hole with their parents. Having reached sexual maturity, they finally separate and create a new family in a separate burrow. Reproduction begins at the age of 1-3 years. In nature, the life expectancy of marmots is only 4-5 years, in captivity it is 10-14.

Yellow-bellied marmot cubs with their mother.

Predators play a huge role in the life of marmots, because these animals have a lot of enemies. They are hunted by wolves, coyotes, foxes, steppe ferrets, cougars, red lynxes, manulas, snakes, eagles, golden eagles and other birds of prey. To protect their lives, marmots are forced to constantly stand guard, standing up in a column and looking around the surroundings. The only salvation from danger is a deep hole and mutual assistance of brothers giving warning signals. In an effort to hide in a hole, a marmot is capable of running at speeds of up to 16 km/h, while they usually move only at a speed of 3 km/h. At the same time, the caught animal is able to resist and can bite hard with its sharp incisors. In addition, fleas, ticks and nematodes (worms) pose a danger to marmots, which, when heavily infested, weaken the young. These animals can also suffer from “human” diseases: tularemia, rabies, Rocky Mountain fever, hepatitis, atherosclerosis.

Alpine marmot cubs (Marmota marmota) started playing.

People have always treated these animals with some hostility. All sorts of accusations were brought against these animals. They were not loved because they eat a lot of grass (they take food away from livestock), dig holes (horses often fall into them and break their legs), and carry infectious diseases. In reality, this harm is greatly exaggerated. Although marmots eat grass, they do not eat cereal grains, so they do not damage crops. Marmot burrows do interfere with movement, but they also increase soil fertility through aeration, loosening the soil and fertilizing it with droppings. Although marmots can be carriers of diseases, they do not settle in human homes, and their fertility does not contribute to outbreaks of infections.

But the only thing for which people valued marmots turned against these animals. And they were valued for their tasty meat and high-quality fur. Marmot meat is juicy and fatty, and the weight of one animal is comparable to the weight of a rabbit, so marmots have always been hunted by both nomads and modern sport hunting enthusiasts. The fur of these animals is warm, quite soft and beautiful despite its modest coloring. They hunt marmots with a gun, but hunting with birds of prey, in particular golden eagles, is considered especially prestigious.

A female of the rare Vancouver marmot (Marmota vancouverensis) with her calf. In 2003, the population of this species decreased to 30 individuals, but thanks to captive breeding it increased 10 times.

Due to commercial hunting and plowing of virgin lands, the number of these animals has greatly decreased. Thus, the Vancouver marmot is on the verge of extinction - a narrow endemic that lives only on the Canadian island of Vancouver; now its population numbers only 300 individuals. The range of the Menzbir marmot (Western Tien Shan) is slightly wider, but it is also listed in the Red Book. Even the steppe marmot, or boibak, which has a wide range, is very few in number in its western part (in Ukraine). The Mongolian and wood marmots are quite prosperous, and commercial and sport hunting is permitted. At a young age, marmots are easily tamed, and they transfer their innate “nepotism” to the teacher and become very attached to the person caring for him. However, breeding of most species in captivity is problematic; only woodchucks, which are not uncommon, are bred for medical research. The remaining species need protection, so when meeting marmots, you should not kill them, disturb them or destroy their holes, and then their sonorous whistle will always enliven the mountains and steppes.