66 



YOSEMITE NATURE NOTES 



noK 



ih of Lake Tahoe" by Robert T. Ore. Courtesy of publisher, California Academy of Sciences. 



MARMOT 



quoia cone is about the size of a hen's 

 egg, the magnitude of this feat is even 

 more impressive. 



Since the seeds are what interest the 

 squirrel, obviously the scales and stems 

 of cones make quite a pile of debris after 

 its meals. A spot is usually chosen for 

 the shucking process which provides a 

 good lookout, such as a rock, log or old 

 stump. Consequently the waste from 

 many meals adds up to quite a pile of 

 scales and stems. These piles are known 

 as "kitchen middens" and are readily 

 found throughout the forested country 



From cast by M. V. HooJ 



Marmot tracks. Hind foot on left, front on right. 

 Six-inch pencil. 



above the rim. Gray squirrels may make 

 similar middens, but with a greater va- 

 riety of food available, such workings 

 are not found so commonly in Yosemite. 



Daytime travelers on the Tioga Road 

 are very likely to make the acquaintance 

 of the southern Sierra marmot. Near 

 or within the patches of meadowland, 

 marmots are fond of lying flattened out 

 on the tops of large rocks, basking in 

 the sunshine. About the size of a cat, 

 with its glossy, grizzled, light-brown up- 

 perparts and contrasting orange-yellow 

 chest and feet, they make a strikingly 

 pretty sight in this position. Easterners 

 will note a strong resemblance to a wood- 

 chuck, for the two are closely related. 



It must have plenty of green plants 

 to eat and rocks or trees or logs under 

 which to burrow. Tunneling under such 

 a place means that a predator is not able 

 to dig them out. At the first real threat 

 of danger, it is toward the burrow that 

 the marmot gallops. Some of them take 

 up residence in barren rock slides so that 

 in case of alarm, all they have to do is 



