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Marmots are members of the genus Marmota, in the rodent family Sciuridae (squirrels).
Marmots are generally large ground squirrels. Those most often referred to as marmots tend to live in mountainous areas such as the Sierra Nevadas in the United States or the European Alps. However the groundhog is also properly called a marmot, and the prairie dog is also better called a "prairie marmot", though it is not classified in the genus Marmota but in the closely related genus Cynomys.
Marmots typically live in burrows, and hibernate there through the winter. Most marmots are highly social, and use loud whistles to communicate with one another, especially when alarmed.
Many historians suggest that marmots, rather than rats, were the primary carriers of the Bubonic plague during several historic outbreaks.
The name marmot comes from French marmotte, from Old French marmotan, marmontaine, from Old Franco-Provençal, from Low Latin mures montani "mountain mouse", from Latin mures monti, from Classical Latin mures alpini "Alps mouse".
Marmots mainly eat greens. They eat many types of grasses, berries, lichens, mosses, roots and flowers.
