sik sik

They're in Banff too - cute lil gaffers. They sound like birds.

he was digging right under the grass right outside my tent and wasnt one bit scared. I had to go ask one of the natives what the heck it was before being told it was what we in Alberta call a gopher.

If they're that big Ziggy.......watch you nuts.

Their as big as a rabbit,and the rabbits(arctic hare)are as big as a coyote.

Hey Arctic_Menace, their one of your pals.

Lily,

I think what you're talking about is a marmot. Not particularly friendly,... especially when you've snared one and are aiming for his head with the 2" steel pipe in your hands.

No, it was a Richardson's ground squirrel. we fed it some of our granola bars. We have marmots here though, at least according to the damned tree huggers.

Ok, my mistake then. I used to come across marmots regularly when I hiked in the Lake Louise/Morraine Lake area.

Gun,that would be at higher elevations,right around the scree slopes is when the gophers get scarce and pika's or rock rabbits are abundant. Dont think we have any marmots in the Alberta rockies,could be wrong,if I've seen one I probably mistook it for some other rodent.lol!

Sure glad they are not that big around here. They sure make a mess in my bee yards. I have had tunnels colapse under foot while carrying a colony of live bees not something you want to drop.

Ziggy,

We definitely get them in the mountains. If you ever get the chance to do some hiking around Banff-Lake Louise, you'll find marmot sightings are not a rarity in the backcountry. Btw: where do you think the place name [b]Marmot[/b] Basin originated? How about "Whistler"? To spot them at "lower" elevations is not so common. But in the case of the I snared: it had dug a burrow into an earthen berm (around an explosives magazine) where I worked at 4 Wing, Cold Lake. While everyone else fretted how to get rid of him without using firearms (not kosher in an X-Area, I made a snare out of steel wire and set the trap with a 10 lb spring. the bugger was too heavy for the spring and he was quite displeased with the necklace that he had been fitted. Not counting the cerebral flluid that exited his ears after I whacked him, I'd guess he was in the 18 to 20 lb range (which would prevent him from being mistaken for a small mammal like a gopher).

Heres some more info on marmots: http://www.nature.ca/notebooks/english/homarm.htm

I guess it depends on what part of the province your in.In the south here Ive never seen them at any altitude and ive hiked every square inch of the back country here,but I spent 4 years logging and only saw one fisher and 2 martins that werent in traps either so maybe I mistook them for something else. Your link says they have a white back so now im sure ive never seen one here south of banff.We do have rock rabbits(pika).did some more reading and there sparsely populated in the extreme south portions of the province,guess thats why I havent seen one. Funny how a couple hundred miles can make a difference in what animals populate the habitat in the area.Banff and here are very similiar so its strange how their in one place and rare in another. I'll have to ask my buddy if he ever got any in his trapline.

Wow.......this has more valuable information than most of the forum topics. No one has been accused of being of being a communist or something either.