Vancouver Island marmot
marmota vancouverensis latin

"No, but their cousins, the Vancouver Island marmots, are," he said.

It is the largest marmot, about 7% longer than the hoary and Vancouver Island marmots.

Major predators upon Vancouver Island marmots include Golden eagles, cougars and wolves.

Like all marmots, Vancouver Island marmots live in burrows and are obligate herbivores.

The closest relatives of the species are the yellow-bellied, Olympic, and Vancouver Island marmots, although the exact relationships are unclear.

Vancouver Island marmots have been documented to eat over 30 species of food plants, generally shifting from grasses in the early spring to plants such as lupines in late summer.

Wild Vancouver Island marmots hibernate, on average, for about 210 days of the year, generally from late September or early October until late April or early May.

The Vancouver Island marmot (Marmota vancouverensis) naturally occurs only in the high mountains of Vancouver Island, in British Columbia, Canada.

Although endemic to Vancouver Island, Marmota vancouverensis now also resides successfully at several captive breeding centres across Canada as well as several sites on Vancouver Island at which local extinction was observed during the 1990s.