Reactions and adjustment of adult and young alpine marmots Marmota marmota to intense hiking activities

Abstract

In the region of First near Grindelwald in the Swiss Alps, experiments were carried out on the reaction of alpine marmots Marmota marmota when confronted with hikers. Marmots in highly frequented areas showed less reaction to hiking activities than marmots in remote areas. In adult marmots, there was no change in reaction during the season. In young animals the reaction shortly after leaving the burrows in early July, was slight and similar in highly frequented and remote areas. In late summer, the intensity of the reaction of young animals increased significantly in animals in both study groups but to a much larger extent in the remote areas. We conclude that the perception of danger has to be learned or is built up during growth and development. At the same time, young animals in highly frequented areas may adjust to the presence of hikers.

Pastoralist disturbance effects on Himalayan marmot foraging and vigilance activity

“…Our data suggests that Himalayan marmots are perhaps less vigilant (i.e. in terms of scan frequency, scan time) in comparison to other Marmota species (Blumstein et al 2001), however their response to the presence of humans is consistent with other published work on yellow-bellied marmots (Armitage et al 1996;Li et al 2011), Olympic marmots (Griffin et al 2007), and alpine marmots (Neuhaus and Mainini 1998). For example, Griffin et al (2007) found marked differences in scan frequency and total time spent on scanning between sites experiencing low to high levels of recreational use.…”

“…Therefore the effects of human disturbance are analogous to natural predation risks (Frid and Dill 2002;Beale and Monaghan 2004). Previous studies have described how anthropogenic disturbances are associated with behavioural changes in marmot species (Neuhaus and Mainini 1998;Semenov et al 2002). Human disturbance strongly influences the behaviour in marmots populations, and under perceived risk of disturbance, marmots become more vigilant (Griffin et al 2007;Li et al 2011).…”

“…Vigilance is influenced by several factors (Armitage 2014), including distance to burrow (Blumstein et al 2001), visibility (Bednekoff and Blumstein 2009;Ferrari et al 2009), distance to other neighbours (Ferna´ndez-Juricic et al 2007), age and sex (Neuhaus and Mainini 1998;Lea and Blumstein 2011), reproductive status (Childress and Lung 2003), type of stimuli Li et al 2011), parental status (Lenti Boreo 2003, and human activities (Griffin et al 2007). In general, animals invest more time in vigilance behaviour in areas experiencing high risks (Unck et al 2009).…”

Effects of Tourists on Behavior and Demography of Olympic Marmots

“…Until now the supposition that marmots can adjust their behavior to avoid negative demographic consequences when confronted with regular human presence has been based on potentially ambiguous behavioral data (Neuhaus & Mainini 1998; Louis & Le Berre 2000). Our demographic results support this hypothesis in the case of Olympic marmots and demonstrate the importance of using demographic data when evaluating the impacts of recreational activities on animal populations.…”

“…], and marmots) have been limited to examining warning and flight responses of animals that frequently encounter hikers relative to those that do not. Alpine marmots ( M. marmota ) inhabiting popular hiking areas and prairie dogs ( C. ludovicianus ) in urban parks both exhibit reduced flight distance in response to predictable human actions (Neuhaus & Mainini 1998; Louis & Le Berre 2000; Magle et al 2005), although with repeated direct approaches, prairie dogs increase their reaction distance (Magle et al 2005). It has been postulated that the increased tolerance to close human approach indicates that marmots can adjust their behavior to accommodate human presence, avoiding demographic costs (Neuhaus & Mainini 1998; Louis & Le Berre 2000).…”