

Reports
Sunnylea Junior School
Vancouver Island Marmot
| My report is on the animal called the Vancouver Island
Marmot. It is a type of squirrel from the mammal family. The scientific name of my animal
is marmot vancouverensis. The status of my animal in Canada is endangered. In this report
you will find the categories appearance, habitat, food, threats interesting facts. My
report is important because if you read it you can learn a lot about is and you can make a
difference by helping it live. The Vancouver Island Marmot has some similarities in appearance to a gopher. It is a small animal. Its fur is chocolate with a white patch on its muzzle. Sometimes its fur fades to brownish red. It has some black hairs on its back and its fur can be brown on the back as well. The Vancouver Island Marmot lives in many places on Vancouver Island. It lives in alpine and subalpine areas. It lives on the mountains or on steep slopes with no trees. They can also live in meadows and forest openings. Its shelter is a burrow. They often live with a group called a colony. The colony has at least 2 to 6 adults. The Vancouver Island Marmot eats many different kinds of food. It will get mostly anything it can find. It will eat berries, leaves, flowers, roots. As you can see it has many different varieties. It can eat fruit and flowers all day. When there is nothing to eat in the winter it will eat bark. But it will eat bark in the spring too. The Vancouver Island Marmot has many different kinds of threats but its largest threat is people building ski resorts on its home. People make logging development that is ruining their homes. People have to start saving these marmots, their population is very small. Its animal threats are a puma, black bear which can get them easily on the mountains. The golden eagle and red-tailed hawk are also one of the marmot's predators. The Vancouver Island Marmot does many interesting things. The marmot is a very playful animal. But even though it loves to play it will never go far from its burrow. It hibernates for nine months. That means it can hibernate till May! The Vancouver Island marmot is protected under the British Columbia Wildlife Act. But even though it is protected the 1995 survey shows that it is estimated between 50 and 100 individuals left. By Sarah
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Copyright 1997, 2000 - Joan Goble and René de Vries