Himalayan Marmots are marmots found in the Himalayan regions ranging in elevation from 300 metres to 4,500 metres. They can be seen in the Deosai plains in Pakistan and Ladakh in Indian occupied Kashmir. They are about the size of a large housecat, and live in colonies. Marmota himalayanus is closely related to the Woodchuck, the Hoary Marmot and the Yellow-bellied Marmot. It has a dark chocolate-brown coat with contrasting yellow patches on its face and chest.
[edit] Herodotus - 'Gold-digging ants'
Research by the French ethnologist Michel Peissel makes a claim that the story of 'Gold-digging ants' reported by the Greek historian Herodotus, who lived in the 5th century BC, was founded on the golden Himalayan marmot of the Deosai plateau and the habit of local tribes such as the Minaro to collect the gold dust excavated from their burrows.[2]
[edit] Gallery
[edit] References
- ^ Molur, S. & Shreshtha, T. K. (2008). Marmota himalayana. In: IUCN 2008. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Downloaded on 6 January 2009.
- ^ Peissel, Michel. "The Ants' Gold: The Discovery of the Greek El Dorado in the Himalayas". Collins, 1984. ISBN 978-0002725149.
- Himalayan Marmot
- Thorington, R. W. Jr. and R. S. Hoffman. 2005. Family Sciuridae. Pp. 754-818 in Mammal Species of the World a Taxonomic and Geographic Reference. D. E. Wilson and D. M. Reeder eds. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore.
