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b"Thanks to Dean for suggesting this week's topic, the marmot!\\n\\nThanks also to Al-Ka-Lines Studio for the beautiful bat pin! You should definitely visit their online shop, because all their jewelry is hand-made by the two of them.\\n\\nFurther reading:\\n\\nThe secret to longevity? Ask a yellow-bellied marmot\\n\\nThe yellow-bellied marmot doing a sit [By Inklein, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2675916]:\\n\\n\\n\\nA groundhog keeping an eye out for danger:\\n\\n\\n\\nShow transcript:\\nWelcome to Strange Animals Podcast. I\\u2019m your host, Kate Shaw.\\nThis week we\\u2019re going to have a short little episode about a short little animal suggested by Dean, although I don\\u2019t know if Dean is short and/or little. Probably not. The name Dean makes me think of a tall person, probably someone who plays sports and can run really fast, so basically completely unlike a marmot. Dean suggested the marmot, specifically the yellow-bellied marmot.\\nBefore we get started, two quick notes. First, thanks so much to Kathi and Alex of Al-Ka-Lines Studio for the gorgeous bat pin! They make hand-crafted leather jewelry and while they usually sell wholesale to shops, I checked with Kathi to see if it was okay to link to their shop and they said that yes, they sometimes sell to individuals too. I\\u2019ve put a link in the show notes in case you\\u2019re interested in seeing what they have for sale. They recently started listening to the podcast in order from the first episode and so far they\\u2019re not sick of my voice yet.\\nSecond, I\\u2019ll be at Furry Weekend Atlanta this coming weekend, assuming you\\u2019re listening to this episode when it comes out on May 8, 2023. If you\\u2019re going to be there too, let me know and we can meet up. I went to way too many conventions last year so this one and Dragon Con at the end of August are the only ones I have planned this year, and I\\u2019m not on any programming on either. I just plan to look at people\\u2019s amazing costumes and attend interesting panels and have fun dancing in the evenings. Also, I\\u2019ll probably eat a lot of pizza.\\nNow, on to the marmots!\\nIf you live in North America, you may have seen a marmot without realizing it. I didn\\u2019t realize that the groundhogs that are pretty common where I live in the eastern United States are a type of marmot. Similarly, if you live in the western part of North America, especially in mountainous areas, you may have seen the yellow-bellied marmot. Other species of marmot live in Asia, Europe, and other parts of North America. One interesting thing is that the groundhog of eastern North America is actually more closely related to the marmots of Europe and Asia than it is to the other North American marmot species.\\nMarmots are big rodents related to squirrels, and in fact they\\u2019re considered a type of ground squirrel along with the closely related chipmunks and prairie dogs. They dig burrows and mostly eat plant material, and can grow quite large. The largest species is probably the Olympic marmot that only lives in the state of Washington in the Pacific Northwest of North America, which can weigh up to 18 lbs, or 8 kg. That\\u2019s its summer weight, though, when it\\u2019s had time to eat lots of food. All marmots hibernate and during that time they survive on the fat reserves they build up in warm weather. Basically all marmots are about the size of a cat, but they\\u2019re big chonks with short legs, short tails, little round ears, and a blunt muzzle. Its thick fur makes it look even larger than it really is.\\nThe yellow-bellied marmot mostly lives in higher elevations and, like all marmots, it\\u2019s well adapted to cold weather. It\\u2019s a social animal that lives in small colonies and spends most of its time underground when it\\u2019s not out finding food. It\\u2019s mostly brown with yellowish markings underneath and a spot of white between its eyes. It usually digs its burrow among rocks and can have multiple burrows in its territory, so if it spots a predator it doesn\\u2019t have far to run to get safely underground."