The Tatra marmot (Marmota marmota latirostris) is an endemic subspecies of marmot found in the Tatra Mountains. In the past, it was a game animal, but in the 19th century, its population drastically declined. It is a herbivore active in the summer, living in territorial family clans in the mountains from the upper montane to the alpine zone. One of the rarest vertebrates in Poland, it is subject to strict legal protection there. It is also legally protected in Slovakia. The Red List of Threatened Animals in Poland and the Polish Red Book of Animals classify the Tatra marmot as a strongly endangered subspecies (EN), while the Red List for the Carpathians in Poland designates it as "CR" – critically endangered. It is a relatively poorly researched animal.
History of discovery and research
The wider recognition of the marmot in Poland was influenced by the slow progress of settlement in the Tatra region, dating back to the privilege granted by Bolesław V the Chaste in 1255 to the Cistercian Abbey of Szczyrzyc: We also grant to the abbot: free hunting, all in the surrounding forests up to the mountains called Tatras. Historical accounts mention that over time, a group of hunters specializing in marmot hunting emerged, known as "whistlers". Descriptions of Tatra marmots were very modest and mostly related to their hunting value. Hungarian pastor Andreas Jonas Czirbesz wrote in 1774: The Carpathian marmot resides in the highest mountain peaks' dens in summer and winter. It feeds on roots and herbs and has fat, tasty meat. The meat, skins, and especially the fat, which had wide applications in folk medicine, were valued. Various authors wrote about marmots: in 1719, teacher Georg Buchholtz; in 1721, Polish naturalist and Jesuit Gabriel Rzączyński; in 1750, Gdańsk naturalist Jacob Theodor Klein; and in 1779, Polish naturalist and clergyman Jan Krzysztof Kluk mentioned "whistlers" in the Carpathians. Marmots were hunted almost without restrictions until around 1868, and on the Hungarian side of the Tatras until 1883 when regulations protecting this species were introduced. In 1865, the first description of marmot biology was published. The author of the work About the Marmot was Maksymilian Nowicki – co-founder of the Polish Tatra Society, researcher of Tatra fauna and flora, and a pioneer of nature conservation in Poland. Nowicki, using the name Arctomys (Greek: ἄρκτος, romanized: arktos – bear, and Latin: mus – mouse, rat) as the generic name for marmots, used the term "little bear mouse," while Ludwik Zejszner, writing at the same time, used the term "bear mouse": this peculiar little animal resembles two other creatures, with a head similar to a mouse, and the rest of the body like a bear, covered with long hair similar to martens. Highlanders call it a marmot because of its special barking, as the individual barking sounds are so drawn out that they bear a great resemblance to whistling... The marmot makes very long burrows in the Tatra hollows, lining them with moss and grass. Like many animals, it undergoes hibernation. At the end of summer, it stores numerous root supplies in its burrows and, having fattened up excessively, falls asleep in this winter abode, only waking up completely emaciated in the spring.
Systematics and evolution Belonging to the family Sciuridae, the species Marmota marmota began to inhabit European territories already in the Pleistocene. It occurred over a vast area – from present-day Belgium and the shores of the English Channel to the Pannonian Basin. In the Holocene, with the warming climate, marmots had to choose more favorable locations. The moderate warmth of forested areas was not suitable for them, as their bodies are not well adapted to higher temperatures. They found cooler habitats in the elevated mountain ranges of Europe. Over time, they had to narrow their territories to the Alpine range and the Tatra Mountains. The separation of the Alpine population from the Carpathian one could have occurred from 15 to 50 thousand years ago, but for many years, no differences were noticed between the marmot living in the Tatras and its Alpine cousin, and both populations were treated as geographically separated locations of the same species. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Czechoslovak scientists undertook comparative studies. For this purpose, on 31 May 1961, a marmot was shot from a colony in Wielki Żleb Krywański. The holotype studies were conducted by Josef Kratochvíl, a zoologist from the agricultural university in Brno, who found significant differences in the structure of the nasal bones compared to representatives of Alpine populations. After conducting additional comparisons of the results of cranial measurements of the skulls of ten Tatra marmots (selected from 16 obtained for study) and 40 marmots from the Alps (27 skulls were personally examined, and the measurement data of 13 were the result of Gerrit Miller's work from 1912), Kratochvíl concluded that there was a regularity in the comparative group, namely, that the anterior, facial part of the nasal bone was significantly wider and longer in Tatra marmots than in animals from the Alps. Additionally, he found that marmots living in the Tatras are smaller than their cousins and have slightly different fur coloration. Ultimately, Kratochvíl classified marmots from the Tatras as a separate subspecies, M. marmota latirostris, while marmots from the Alpine population were designated as M. marmota marmota. Some zoologists question whether the observed differences could be merely manifestations of individual variability within the small population. However, genetic studies have not yet been conducted to settle this matter.
Etymology The generic name Marmota may derive from Gallo-Romance languages, meaning "murmuring" or "purring", or from Latin, being associated with the term mus montanus, which translates to "mountain mouse". The subspecies epithet latirostris originates from two Latin words: the element lati– comes from Latin lātus, meaning "wide", and –rostris from Latin rōstrum, referring to the nose or beak, and together it can be translated as "broad-nosed". The epithet refers to the flattened and wider facial part of the nasal bone (os nasale) of the animal compared to representatives of the Alpine population.
… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.
