Steppe Marmot Marmota bobak is one of the rodents that go into deep hibernation in winter. The 2019/20 winter in the steppe zone of the Chelyabinsk region was notable for warm weather with frequent thaws and rain. Even though thaws in the middle of winter are quite usual for the Southern Trans-Urals, marmots leaving their burrows in winter had not been recorded. In the third tenday period of January 2020, residents of the Mayak settlement of the Bredy district observed a family of 4 marmots

more »

... their burrow for 2 days. The spring awakening of marmots this year was also unusually early: the first animals that left the burrows were seen in the Bredy district on 5 March 2020, while in the previous years the earliest observation dates were 18 and 19 March.