Trying to poke a groundhog's nose like Nezha? You're risking your life!

"Nezha 2" has become popular, and the silly and cute groundhog in the movie has also become popular. On some platforms, netizens posted photos of themselves with groundhogs, and even imitated Nezha by poking the groundhog's nose.

Oh my god, are you trying to save your life?! Groundhogs are important hosts of plague bacteria!

Groundhog is the common name for marmots. A few years ago, the "groundhog call" video became popular on the Internet. Of course, everyone later knew that the roar was dubbed by bored human voice actors. In recent years, with the popularity of Northwest tourism, marmots have often appeared in tourists' cameras. However, although marmots are cute, close contact with them has great health risks.

The one in the emoticon is Marmota caligata

It's also called groundhog.

Marmots are a species that originated in Eurasia, flourished in North America, and then spread back to Eurasia. The genus Marmota belongs to the order Rodentia, the family Sciuridae, the subfamily Ground Sciuridae, and the tribe Marmota. There are about 15 species in the genus Marmota, 9 of which are distributed in Eurasia. Marmots are completely terrestrial and highly adapted to various ground environments. From the Alps to the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, from Alaska to the Sierra Nevada Mountains, these are all areas where marmots live.

The picture shows the distribution area of ​​​​Marmot M. bobak丨IUCN

There are four species of marmots in China, of which the Himalayan marmot ( M. himalayana ) is the most widespread, mainly living in the alpine meadow area of ​​the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, from northwest Yunnan to southern Xinjiang. This area belonged to Tubo in ancient times, so the word "groundhog" in China may be a homonym of "Tubo rat". Groundhog in Chinese mostly refers to marmot, which is called Marmot in English; another type of groundhog refers to the genus Cynomys , which is only distributed in North America and is called prairie dog in English.

Gray marmot ( M. baibacina ) and long-tailed marmot ( M. caudata ) are distributed in the Altai and Tianshan areas of Xinjiang, while Mongolian marmot ( M. sibirica ) is distributed in the central and eastern grasslands of Inner Mongolia and adjacent areas of Heilongjiang. Mongolian marmot is also the only species in the genus Marmota that is rated as "endangered" by the IUCN (the others are rated as low risk).

Mongolian marmot | Stéphane Magnenat / Wikimedia Commons

It looks silly and cute, it will hibernate

The appearance of marmots is similar all over the world: big face, small ears, and a stupid expression. They are basically a large mouse.

How big is it? For example, the Himalayan marmot can grow to half a meter long and weigh more than ten kilograms, which is the size of a medium-sized dog, but it looks much fatter and bloated because it lives in high-altitude cold areas and must have thick fur and fat . The marmot has a fluffy tail, which is usually about one-third of its body.

It looks cute and chubby with a big tail; the picture shows a Himalayan marmot | Asis K. Chatterjee / flickr

Marmots are usually grey-yellow or brown in color, which can blend in well with local habitats, such as dry grass or high mountain rocky areas . For example, the Himalayan marmot has dry grass yellow fur with a little black, and its forehead and snout are also black. This is also the most recognizable marmot in the Chinese branch. The gray marmot is also dry grass yellow but slightly brown, with white hair around the lips and chin, which is also easier to recognize.

Marmots mainly live in meadow grasslands with lush grass growth at an altitude of 3,000 to 5,460 meters. They often dig holes on well-drained sunny slopes and come out to look for food during the day. Marmots are family-based social animals. Family members build their own living holes, which are connected to each other to form a hole group. The hole groups of adjacent families will also overlap, forming a large living community. Community members share the same meadow for food, respect each other, and rarely fight.

A marmot once found a strange object at his doorstep - a camera, and was about to drag it back to his hole.

Marmots feed on a variety of plants, mainly grasses such as Stipa and Carex, and also eat some plants in the Leguminosae and Asteraceae families .

From September to October, marmots will eat a lot and dig their hibernation caves ; the caves can be more than ten meters long, about 2 to 3 meters deep, and have complex curves. After digging the cave, the marmot will block the entrance to prevent cold air and predators from entering, and sleep in it for half a year; in April or May of the following year, the marmot will wake up and dig a new entrance to leave the nest. Such a hibernation cave can be used for several years, and when the marmot is not hibernating, the cave may also be occupied by other animals.

Gray marmot is plucking flowers丨seancrane.com

Gray marmot eating leaves丨seancrane.com

Marmots begin mating after coming out of hibernation. Female marmots will give birth after about a month of pregnancy. At this time, they will dig a small hole for delivery. Generally, five cubs are born in each litter, and the cubs can move out of the hole after 25 days.

The wild enemies of marmots include birds of prey, wolves, Tibetan foxes, etc. When they find their natural enemies, they will use sharp calls to alert their companions. The gray and white marmot that became an internet celebrity at the beginning also made this kind of shrill call. In some places in North America, it is called a whistlepig, which is very vivid.

It can be very dangerous to get close to it

Photos of Tibetan people having close contact with marmots can often be seen online. Tibetans do not like to kill animals, and often feed them, pampering wild marmots like pets. Even some tourists can't help but want to kiss and hug them when they see them - however, this behavior is very dangerous.

Why is this behavior so dangerous?

Marmots can carry plague bacteria . Among the 12 natural plague foci in China, the Himalayan marmot distribution area is the most active plague foci and one of the most serious areas of plague epidemics among animals and humans in China. The plague bacteria here are highly toxic, and more than half of the clinical cases are pneumonic plague, which can be transmitted through droplets.

The main vectors of plague transmission between marmots are several types of fleas, and there are many ways of transmission from marmots to humans . More than half of them are active contact, including hunting and eating locally; one-fifth are flea bites, including living with marmots, kissing and touching, etc.; and some are contact with other animals infected with plague, such as sheep, dogs, rabbits, etc. For example, the pneumonic plague in Xinghai County, Qinghai in 2009 was transmitted by infected dogs.

Since the Himalayan marmot epidemic source was confirmed in 1954, human plague has occurred and spread almost every year in the following half century, with an average mortality rate of over half.

Captured Mongolian marmot | Jeanne Menjoulet / flickr

Because the Himalayan marmot can carry plague bacteria, the Ministry of Health allows people in the epidemic source area to hunt marmots in accordance with relevant national regulations to control the number. Marmot skins can be sold after processing and quarantine, but other parts such as meat, bones, and visceral fat are not allowed to be bought or sold. Live animals without quarantine certificates are also not allowed to be bought, sold or transported.

So you see, an animal that is legally hunted for infectious diseases can actually have close contact with people just because it looks cute, and even take photos with people and upload them. These people are really brave. It doesn't matter if they get sick themselves, but if they bring the germs back to densely populated areas, it will be a disaster for the world.

Design dialogue: Stay away from me丨drivethenation.com

You may want to refer to the Great Plague in the Three Northeastern Provinces from 1910 to 1911 , which was the most serious plague epidemic in the 20th century. The cause was that Northeastern laborers hunted Mongolian marmots and ate meat and fur in Russia. After being infected with pneumonic plague, they were driven out of the country by the Russians. The plague first spread to Manchuria, then spread to Harbin along the Eastern China Railway, and even spread to the interior of the country. Although modern epidemiologists such as Wu Lien-teh tried to turn the tide, more than 60,000 people died in the end.

Unlike the Tibetan area, the Mongolian area has always had the habit of eating marmots, and the Russians bought a large number of marmot skins, which greatly increased the chances of human contact with marmots. This not only caused a plague pandemic in humans, but also led to a decline in the number of Mongolian marmots, which is on the verge of extinction. It is a foolish act that is a lose-lose situation. It is important to remember that although marmots are cute, they can only be viewed from a distance and not played with. Cherish life and stay away from wild marmots.

The Himalayan marmot, which looks harmless, actually carries a serious infectious disease. | Paul Jones / flickr

Author: Frost Moth

This article comes from GuokrNature (ID: GuokrNature)

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