droll// Only the fat ones get through the winter

The biological alarm clock rings when it gets warmer outside and then the groundhog wakes up. Beautiful to look at....

If you are hiking in the Alps right now in the summer months, you will often hear them from a great distance before you get to see one of the cute alpine marmots "Marmota marmota".

Curiously they stand on their hind legs and watch the hikers from a distance. Now that the offspring is born, they find plenty of flowers, grasses, herbs and roots. By autumn, they must all have gained a fair amount of weight.

In the alpine spring and summer, they eat everything that grows. From June onwards, alpine motherwort, lesser bedstraw and alpine clover are the preferred foods. All three plants provide the important omega-6 fatty acids that are stored in the fatty tissue of the marmots in order to better endure the cold temperatures during deep hibernation.

Beginning in September, as the days slowly grow shorter, the marmots retreat to their burrow. The winter burrow is usually dug up to seven meters deep into the earth. Soon after, they seal the entrances from the inside, where an insulating layer of ice or snow later covers it. Snuggled close together, the marmots warm themselves during hibernation. The temperature in the sleeping chamber never drops below zero degrees. They now hibernate for up to seven months. Their fat reserves alone get them through the cold season. Their body shuts down the metabolism, their body temperature drops to the ambient temperature and their heart beats only very slowly.

From April, when the alpine spring begins, everything then starts all over again....

Vacation Tip:
If you absolutely want to see the cute alpine inhabitants on your vacation, you should visit the vacation region of Saas Fee in Switzerland. On the so-called "Spielboden" (2,450 m above sea level) countless of the cute little fellows cavort from spring on. They like to be fed with carrots and peanuts. One or the other marmot even gets a stroke - an unforgettable experience.