Aaron Clark, age 11, of Cleveland, Ohio, for his question:

WHAT IS A MARMOT?

Marmot is the common name for any of the large, robust rodents found in North America, Europe and Asia. Marmots have blunt snouts, short ears, short bushy tails and short legs. The fur is coarse.

Marmots live in burrows and hibernate during the winter. The length of hibernation varies with the severity of the climate.

Sometimes, the marmots are destructive to cultivated crops since they feed on vegetation. The animals cry is a shrill whistle.

The common marmot of eastern North America is the woodchuck, or groundhog. This animal is gray, streaked with black or brown above  and paler below. It attains a length up to about 2 feet and has a bushy tail that is 1 foot long.

The whistler, or hoary marmot, is a larger, white and gray speciesfound in northwestern North America. Several other species are found in the southwestern United States.