Marmot Day

What the day is

Marmot Day is observed on February 2. Alaska established it by legislation in 2009 as a deliberate local alternative to Groundhog Day, on the straightforward grounds that groundhogs do not live in Alaska and marmots do.

Origin and background

Alaska has hoary marmots and Alaska marmots, large ground squirrels of rocky alpine slopes, and they are genuinely worth the attention that the day redirects toward them.

The hibernation is extraordinary. Marmots spend seven to eight months of the year underground, among the longest hibernations of any mammal, and during it the body is run down to a minimum: heart rate falls to a few beats a minute, breathing becomes intermittent, and body temperature drops close to that of the burrow. They surface having lost a substantial share of their body mass and must rebuild it in a short alpine summer.

They do not sleep straight through. Hibernating marmots rouse periodically, warming back up for a day or so before dropping again, and these arousals consume a large share of the winter's stored energy. Why they happen is still debated, with immune function and sleep debt among the proposed explanations.

Marmots are also unusually social for rodents. They live in colonies, share burrow systems, and maintain a whistled alarm system that gives some species their name of whistle pig. Studies of these calls have found that they carry information about the kind of threat, not merely its presence.

Hibernation research on marmots and their relatives is followed closely by medical researchers interested in how tissue survives extreme cold and low blood flow without damage.

How to take part

• Look up hoary marmot alarm whistles, which carry a remarkable distance.
• Read about periodic arousal, which overturns the usual picture of hibernation.
• Notice that Alaska legislated its own observance rather than importing one.
• Keep your distance in the mountains. Fed marmots lose their wariness and fare badly.
• Compare a marmot with a groundhog, which is a marmot too.