1 / 13

Vancouver Island Marmots

Vancouver Island Marmots. By Bellla Smith Computers 8 December 2010. Table of Contents. What is a Vancouver Island Marmot? Appearance History Habitat Diet and predators Family and Behaviour Why are there so few of them? Mukmuk Collage Bibliography.

liona
Download Presentation

Vancouver Island Marmots

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Vancouver Island Marmots By Bellla Smith Computers 8 December 2010

  2. Table of Contents • What is a Vancouver Island Marmot? • Appearance • History • Habitat • Diet and predators • Family and Behaviour • Why are there so few of them? • Mukmuk • Collage • Bibliography

  3. What is a Vancouver Island Marmot? • Species of marmot • Vancouver Island, British Columbia • Very endangered • Less than 100 in wild • Bred in captivity for species to increase • One of five rarest animals worldwide

  4. Appearance • Size of large domestic cat • Chocolate brown with paler muzzle • Often white hairs on forehead, chin and undersides • Males larger than females • Average weight 3.5 kg (8 lb.). • Newborns dark coat • Don't molt yearly

  5. History • Discovered 1911 by scientists • Species evolved from hoary marmots • Sea levels fell; pathway to island • Marmots crossed over • Glaciers melted, sea levels rose, isolating island • 10 000-12 000 years ago began evolution • Adapted to habitat

  6. Habitat • Vancouver Island • Alpine and subalpine meadows • Need large boulders for look-out rocks • Burrows • At least 1000 metres

  7. Diet and Predators • Herbivores • Eat many plants - Herbs, forbs - Alpine flowers • Predators include: - Cougars, wolves - Golden Eagles

  8. Family and Behavior • Small colonies, under five adults • Hibernate six months • Sit/lie on boulders, logs, and stumps • Little time spent feeding • Come out early morning/ late afternoon • Bound like squirrels, good climbers • Whistle/trill to communicate

  9. Why Are They So Endangered? • Causes of endangerment - Humans - Weather - Predators - Disease - Localized habitat

  10. Mukmuk • Mascot for 2010 Olympic Winter Games • Chinook word “muckamuk” means eat • Qualities of real Vancouver Island marmot • Made into - Stuffed animals, shirts, bags, blankets, slippers - Posters, Olympic books - Pins

  11. Collage

  12. Bibliography • http://www.blindloop.com/index.php/2010/02/top-5-most-rare-animals-in-the-world/ • http://www.junglewalk.com/popup.asp?type=a&AnimalAudioID=7469 • http://www.marmots.org/ • http://www.animalinfo.org/species/rodent/marmvanc.htm • http://nature.ca/notebooks/english/vanmarm.htm • http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/wld/documents/marmot.pdf • http://www.vancouver2010.com/mascot/en/profile_mm.php

More Related