David Element's Wildlife Web Page Mammals 21

David Element

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___________________ Mammals 20 - Alpine Marmots 1

ALPINE MARMOT Marmota marmota

Alpine Marmots have been successfully re-introduced to the French Hautes Pyrenees. They are perhaps not the prettiest of mammals but they are nevertheless rather endearing. The tourist trade has cottoned on to their appeal and the area is littered with souvenir shops selling toy marmots containing sensors that will trigger a whistling alarm call whenever a shopper approaches. The photographer was intrigued to find that a solitary wasp had selected one of these whistles as a nest! How the shopkeepers retain their sanity when batteries of these whistles are activated en masse is a mystery.