Marmot. How to survive in a colony. Baibak is a valuable commercial animal Name of the steppe marmot

STEPPE MARCH, OR BAIBAK (MARMOTA BOBAK)

A fat hulk in a thick fur coat, with a fluffy short tail, who loves to sleep - this is the familiar image of all marmots. And, it should be noted, not very far from the truth. Marmots, of which there are up to 10 species, are quite large rodents with a body length of up to 70 cm and weighing up to 9 kg (this is without winter fat deposits). The body is squat, the paws are short, but with long fingers armed with strong claws - a device for digging holes. On a short, almost imperceptible neck sits a small, slightly flattened head with large eyes and ears slightly protruding from the fur. The tail is no more than half the length of the body. The fur is very dense, thick, especially the underfur. The coloring of all marmots is usually a uniform brownish-gray color, without the spots and stripes characteristic of ground squirrels, but many species have a dark “cap” on their heads.

Baibak is not the largest marmot: its body length is up to 60 cm. The hairline is quite short. The coloring is the most inconspicuous, sandy yellow, with almost no dark shades on the head and back.

In full accordance with its name, the steppe marmot is an inhabitant of the steppes. At the beginning of this century, it was widespread throughout central and southern Ukraine, between the Volga and Don, in the Volga region and further east along the flat steppes of southern Western Siberia and northern Kazakhstan to the Irtysh. However, due to the plowing of virgin lands, the boibak's range has been reduced to several isolated pockets, confined mainly to protected areas.

This marmot is a purely lowland animal, settling on watersheds with hilly terrain, which are least affected by human economic activity. But where people push him out of his habitable places, the marmot settles even in places as inconvenient for him as the edges of birch groves.

It is interesting that absolutely reserved lands, where no livestock are grazed, are just as unsuitable for boibak as those “knocked out” by sheep and cows. The grass that has died off during the winter covers the ground with thick felt, not allowing new seedlings to emerge, so in the spring the marmots simply starve. It turns out that for the prosperous existence of these rodents, herds of wild tarpan horses, once grazing in the steppe by hundreds and thousands, were necessary for the prosperous existence of these rodents, picking up withered grass during the winter.

At the time of prosperity, the boibaks formed huge continuous settlements, occupying tens of thousands of square kilometers. The steppes were completely covered with marmots (up to 20-25 meters in diameter and up to a meter in height) - heaps of compacted earth, which many thousands of animals carried to the surface of the earth for hundreds of years. Since they serve as "observation points", therefore, where the grass is high, the marmots are taller than usual.

This abundance of marmots is due to the fact that in the family’s habitat there are several nesting holes with 3-4 holes each and at least a dozen more protective holes. The underground houses match the considerable size of the diggers themselves: the diameter of the hole is 20-30 centimeters, the length of the passages is up to 15-20 meters, the depth is 2-3 meters. There is little bedding in the nesting chambers. In the winter, the animals plug all exits from the inside with earthen plugs up to 1.5-2 meters long so that the cold does not penetrate.

In the warm season, marmots are active during the day, only bad weather drives them into underground shelters. When grazing, the bobak slowly moves from one bush of grass to another, dragging its belly along the ground, sharply twitching its tail up and down. This is typical of all terrestrial squirrels and means that the animal is constantly on the alert. From time to time the marmot stops, stands up in a column and carefully looks around. This habit is so in the animals’ blood that even a hungry marmot, when grazing, constantly raises its head and looks around. When everything is calm and not too hot, marmots love to soak up the sun. The animal settles down on the marmot, lolls on its belly, stretches out its paws, squints its eyes, but always keeps its head raised.

Marmots announce the appearance of danger, especially a large predator, with sharp, high, two-syllable sounds similar to “hag-hag.” Here one of the grazing boars rushed to the hole with a scream, the sight of a fellow grazing with his tail in the air immediately panics the others and everyone runs to the holes. If the marmot is caught far from its shelter, it clings to the ground and hides silently - you can come almost close to it. And only if the animal realizes that it has been discovered, it takes off and runs away with its tail raised. But the boars do not immediately dive into the holes, but freeze in a “column” on the marmots, nervously twitching their tails to assess the situation.

Despite its clumsy appearance, a frightened bobak runs quite quickly, and it is not easy to catch up with it. The overtaken animal sits on its hind legs facing the enemy, purrs menacingly, snaps its teeth, and clings to the outstretched stick with a death grip.

If you catch a marmot in the first days of leaving its hole, it quickly gets used to people and becomes completely tame. However, after the first winter the animal becomes wild again.

Baibak, depending on the severity and duration of winter, sleeps from 6 to 8 months. Interestingly, they also go into hibernation during serious natural disasters - for example, after fires that destroy all vegetation. All members of the family lie down in one wintering hole; sometimes up to 10-15 marmots gather in the nesting chamber, thanks to this a favorable microclimatic regime is created. In the nest, the air temperature is 5-7°, the body temperature of the animals is only slightly higher.

The boibak's diet is dominated by lush steppe herbs - various cereals, legumes (especially clover), sage, wormwood. Marmots are classified as “pluckers”—grazing over a large area, they selectively nibble only individual leaves and flowers on the grass, leaving the stems almost untouched. Therefore, the grazing of marmots, even with their high numbers, does not disturb the grass stand, unlike “cutters” (such as sheep), after which a short-trimmed “lawn” is left. By autumn, the animal's weight increases by 20-25 percent due to accumulated fat. Moreover, fat deposits, if they are stored in the required quantity, are not completely consumed over the winter, so that in the spring the boars emerge from their burrows completely well-fed.

The rut of bobaks begins immediately after the winter awakening and emergence to the surface; in places where hibernation is long, the animals mate in their wintering burrows. And some females, if the fat reserves remaining after winter allow, give birth even before the first appearance from the hole. There are most often 4-6 cubs in a brood; they are born naked and blind, weighing 30-40 g. Marmots grow quickly, appearing on the surface within a month. They are very playful, frolic carefree on the marmot, but after 2-3 days all the guard skills of adults develop - from time to time they become a “column”, twitch their tail, and whistle when in danger. Marmots reach sexual maturity at three years of age. Their life expectancy is up to 15 years.

Almost everywhere, the boibak's main enemies are wild shepherd dogs, which their owners hardly feed in the summer in the hope that they will find food for themselves. Inattentive marmots are hunted by foxes, wolves, and steppe eagles.

Until recently, Baybak was an important object of the fur trade; it was also mined for its tasty meat and fat, which was highly valued in folk medicine. But already in the 20s of our century, the number of the steppe marmot was so severely undermined that its fishing became unprofitable and almost ceased. Several decades later, the development of virgin lands also contributed to the destruction of the marmot tribe. On the territory of Kazakhstan, bobcats are still hunted, but in Russia this species is protected. To restore their former habitat, marmots are caught in nature reserves and returned to where they were destroyed by humans. But due to the fact that the former habitats of boibaks there are severely disturbed, the settlers have great difficulty settling down.

Grey, or Altaic,marmot(Marmota baibacina) is very similar to the steppe, differing in the dark color of the cheeks and slightly longer and softer hair. It is distributed in the foothills and mountainous regions of the south of Western Siberia, Altai and Tuva, Eastern Kazakhstan, Tien Shan (where it rises into the mountains up to 4000 meters) in Kyrgyzstan and Xinjiang, in western Mongolia. The habitats of the steppe and gray marmots touch in the area of ​​the Kazakh hillocks; according to some external signs, the animals living there appear to be “intermediate” between these two species.

The most favorable areas for the gray marmot are mountain meadows, where in places little affected by human activity, its continuous settlements occupy entire mountain slopes. In the forest belt of the mountains, these marmots live along the edges, in clearings, and sometimes even in open forests. In the flatter regions of Western Siberia, colonies are confined to the slopes of terraces in river valleys.

The permanent burrows of the Altai marmot, especially wintering ones, are very complex, with a large number of passages with a total length of up to 50 meters, with several nesting chambers, penetrating 2-3 meters deep. The dug up earth on mountain slopes is washed away by rain and melt water, so there are usually no large marmots around the burrows of the gray marmot. Marmots that live at high altitudes try to dig holes in places where the snow falls early and reaches a significant thickness: this protects the soil from freezing and maintains the desired temperature in the hole. For this reason, the length of the earthen plugs with which the animals plug all their holes for the winter reaches 7 meters.

The gray marmot, although it looks like a lump, deftly climbs rocks and stones, and easily climbs almost vertical walls onto huge boulders - observation points. In the spring, the animals inhabiting one colony are very friendly, but in the summer they begin to develop individualism. Meetings of marmots near occupied burrows are accompanied by quarrels and an active attack by the owner of the underground dwelling on the newcomer.

The duration of winter hibernation depends on the living conditions: in the steppe, the Altai marmot sleeps for about six months, and in the highlands - up to 8 months. The animals come out of their holes when there is still snow, so they are forced to break through it. In the first days after awakening, the busy fat creatures tidy up their homes and trample paths to the few areas cleared of snow, where 10-15 individuals often graze during feeding. Since their fat deposits are not completely consumed during hibernation, marmots do not suffer from spring malnutrition. In spring and autumn, animals are most active during the day, and in mid-summer - in the morning and evening, when the sun is not very hot.

The Altai marmot feeds mainly on succulent parts of herbaceous plants - shoots, leaves, flowers. This diet fully meets the animal’s needs for vitamins and water.

The gray marmots' rut occurs in March, so in the highlands the awakened animals mate right in their burrows before emerging to the surface. These animals, living in harsh mountain conditions, have a fairly high mortality rate among their young due to various climatic disasters.

The gray marmot is a commercial object. Because of this, as well as due to plowing and overgrazing, it disappeared in many places. In the mountains of Central Asia, this species is involved in maintaining natural plague foci.

Mongolian marmot, or tarbagan(Marmota sibirica) with its rather short hair and contrasting dark “cap” on its head, it looks more like a bobak than a gray marmot. It continues further to the east the chain of habitats of different species of marmots: distributed in the foothill and mountain (at an altitude of up to 3800 meters) steppes and in the alpine meadows of Tuva, Transbaikalia, Mongolia and northeastern China. Currently, the once continuous range of this species has been reduced to several isolated areas.

Tarbagan usually settles on ridges, gentle slopes of smoothed gorges and ravines, and avoids areas with highly dissected relief, replete with narrow valleys and ravines. He also does not like to live among the tall meadow grass, which blocks his view. The burrows are not as extensive as those of mountain marmot species, but they are deeper, often going 3-4 meters underground, sometimes even over 5 meters. The animals carry a lot of dry grass into their wintering chambers; the weight of the litter sometimes reaches 7-9 kilograms.

Each hole opens in the center of the marmot up to a meter high and 5-10 meters in diameter. Surchins, or locally “butans,” were created by hundreds and thousands of generations of these animals, inhabiting the same burrows for centuries. Therefore, at the time of the former prosperity of Tarbagan, primary emissions significantly influenced the microrelief of the steppes. Even now in Transbaikalia, some areas of the steppe look hilly due to the many marmots. It is not surprising that grain growers really do not like these rodents, which do not so much eat cereal seedlings as cover them with earth.

Tarbagan is not as sedentary a creature as other marmots. Living in places with a pronounced continental climate, under unfavorable conditions he moves from one mountain slope to another or descends into a valley. Therefore, settlements that completely occupy hundreds and thousands of hectares are only partially occupied: many holes are empty until need drives the marmots from one place to another. Most often, migrations are local in nature, but sometimes tarbagans travel tens of kilometers and even swim across small rivers.

Tarbagans lie down in one burrow for the winter in several family groups of up to 16-20 animals. Huddled together, covered with a thick layer of nesting litter, the animals create an optimal microclimate for a successful wintering. When the frosts get stronger and bother the marmots in their underground shelters, some animals go from a state of deep stupor to “half-sleep”, their body temperature rises - the necessary temperature regime in the nesting chamber is restored.

Marmots caught in their infancy quickly become attached to their caregiver, respond to the call, seek communication with him, and demand handouts with persistent cries. When such animals are kept in an expedition camp, the tame marmot, not at all wild, walks freely between people, retires at night to a hole he has dug nearby, but in the morning he certainly comes for his share of breakfast, preferring human food, especially sweets, to grass.

The number of tarbagan has catastrophically decreased over the past decades due to unregulated fishing, plowing of virgin steppes and direct extermination in plague areas. Currently, Tarbagan is protected and is included in the Red Book of the Russian Federation.

Marmots are a genus of rodents from the squirrel family, numbering 15 species. The closest relatives of marmots are ground squirrels and prairie dogs, and more distant relatives are squirrels and chipmunks. Marmots stand out for their large size both among their relatives and among rodents in general. Their ability to hibernate (“sleeps like a marmot”) is widely known, but many aspects of biology remain unknown to a wide range of nature lovers.

Himalayan marmots (Marmota himalayana).

In general, marmots are similar in build to squirrels and gophers. They have a ridged body, relatively short legs, and the length of the hind legs is not much greater than the length of the front ones. What they have in common with squirrels is the excellent quality of their fur - thick and long, with sparse guard hairs and a soft, warm undercoat. But they also have peculiar structural features. The marmots' skull is somewhat flat, and their widely spaced eyes sometimes look slightly slanted. The nose is relatively large. The ears are short, round and barely protrude from the fur. The tail is shorter than that of squirrels, and in marmots it is not flat, but rounded in cross section and not covered with long hair. All this indicates the terrestrial lifestyle of these animals. But the main thing that allows you to distinguish a marmot from other rodents even at a great distance is its size. Even the smallest species (Menzbier's marmot, wood marmot) weigh at least 2-3 kg and reach a length of 35-40 cm, and the largest (steppe, Himalayan marmot) weigh up to 8-10 kg and reach a length of 65-70 cm. The coloring of all species is protective, monochromatic or with a contrastingly colored abdomen, cheeks, and head. The coat color of different species is yellowish-gray, silver-gray, brown, reddish-red, and some parts of the body can be black.

Marmots live only in the Northern Hemisphere, but here they spread very widely. These animals are found in almost all steppe and mountain zones of Eurasia and North America. In the north, their range in some places borders on the tundra and taiga (in Siberia, in the American Rockies), in the south - on the deserts of Central Asia, in the west of Eurasia, the range of marmots reaches Western Europe (the Alps), and in the east it reaches the shores of the Pacific Ocean. Moreover, all types of marmots can be divided into two groups: steppe and mountain. Outwardly, there are no fundamental differences between them; the ranges of species of each group may overlap each other, but species from different groups never meet each other. Steppe marmots inhabit vast treeless spaces, clearly preferring flat rather than rugged terrain. These animals do not like it when anything limits their view; the only exception is the woodchuck, which really does not disdain to settle on the edges of the forest in the foothills. Mountain marmots, on the contrary, inhabit the uppermost zone of the mountains. But even here they avoid forest plantations and obvious steep slopes, preferring alpine meadows.

The yellow-bellied marmot (Marmota flaviventris) is a typical mountain species inhabiting cliffs and rocky outcrops.

A yellow-bellied marmot collects grass to make a burrow.

All species of marmots are colonial animals. They live in pairs, with the male and female remaining faithful to each other for several years. This kind of monogamy is rare in rodents. Usually their single children also live with their parents, so in fact each couple represents a whole family. The colony consists of several families located at a distance of several tens and hundreds of meters from each other. All family members maintain friendly relations, the young often play with each other and with their parents, conflicts with neighbors in the colony are also very rare, but the marmots drive away aliens from other places. A spirit of mutual assistance reigns in the colony; during feeding and other activities, the marmots monitor the situation and observe the surroundings. As soon as a predator appears, a sound signal immediately follows - a piercing whistle like a “puff-puff”. At this sound, all members of the colony immediately hide in holes; the sight of a fleeing fellow has an even stronger effect on the animals (their vision is better developed than hearing). It should be said that marmots, on the one hand, demonstrate great caution characteristic of all rodents (sometimes bordering on alarmism); on the other hand, these animals are distinguished by more developed intelligence than gophers and squirrels. In places where they are little disturbed, you can notice features of imposingness in their behavior: marmots can allow themselves to lounge in the sun and take a nap, only occasionally lazily looking around the surroundings.

The steppe marmot, or bobak (Marmota bobak), takes a sunbath. The animal gained fat before hibernation and looks well-fed.

Although marmots are generally sedentary animals, they can sometimes move up to tens of kilometers. Young animals disperse in search of a place for their own burrow, and less often, entire colonies in the event of the death of a burrow town (for example, during flooding, plowing of land). All marmots are characterized by seasonal activity. In the summer they reproduce and accumulate fat reserves, and in the winter they hibernate. The proverb “sleeps like a groundhog” very accurately characterizes the behavior of these animals. The marmot's hibernation is the longest in the animal world. Depending on the climate of the area, it can last from 5-6 to 9 months a year; marmots spend 70% of their lives sleeping! During hibernation, the groundhog's pulse slows down to several beats per minute, body temperature drops to 4-8°C, and it is impossible to wake him up in the usual way. The stimulus for awakening is an increase in ambient temperature, but even at this the marmots are still inactive for some time and look sleepy. Marmots sleep not only long and soundly, but also sweetly; in their sleep they can sniffle and snore. These animals hibernate together: all members of the family, and sometimes the entire colony, sleep in the same chamber, sometimes in two rows on top of each other.

Interestingly, in nature these animals do not react to temporary warming, so winter thaws are not able to disturb their sleep rhythm. This may be due to the fact that marmots sleep in deep burrows, and therefore react only to persistent, prolonged warming of the soil and air deep in the burrow. This feature has been used since ancient times to predict the weather and sowing time; on its basis, a holiday arose in the United States - Groundhog Day. It is celebrated annually on February 2, on this day the groundhog is pulled out of the hole and “determined” whether he sees his shadow or not. If the day is sunny, then the groundhog, “seeing the shadow,” hides in a hole, which means there will be another 6 weeks of winter. If the day is cloudy, then the groundhog “does not see the shadow,” which means the arrival of spring. Naturally, such a ritual has nothing to do with the laws of nature and does not convey any real information. In fact, the basis of the tradition is the Christian holiday of Candlemas (according to the Gregorian calendar), which not only in the United States, but also in Europe has long symbolized the arrival of spring. The domesticated marmots used in the ceremony live in artificial houses, so their behavior is in no way related to the weather.

Phil the groundhog sits on the back of his keeper John Griffiths in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. This city is considered the birthplace of Groundhog Day; the tradition of celebration has been maintained here since 1887, and all Punxsutawney meteorological groundhogs bear the name Phil.

In order to spend so much time hibernating, marmots need large reserves of nutrients. Animals store them in the form of fat, the mass of which in the fall can reach 20-25% of the total body weight. In fact, the entire summer period is fattening and preparation for hibernation. The animal can eat up to 250 g of food per day. Marmots feed on a variety of plant foods: fresh grass, buds, rhizomes, bulbs, flowers - their diet includes up to a hundred species of plants. However, in each period of the year these animals show great selectivity, for example, in the spring they eat almost exclusively underground parts of plants. Unlike other rodents, marmots are completely indifferent to seeds and grains; even when eating these parts, they are not digested and come out intact with the droppings. But marmots with grass often eat pupae of ants, locusts, grasshoppers, caterpillars, and snails, which provide them with the necessary amount of protein. In captivity, these animals can even eat meat (including their own relatives), but cannibalism and predation are not characteristic of them.

Compared to other rodents, marmots are not fertile. They breed once a year, the breeding season begins soon after awakening and mating occurs in burrows even before the marmots come to the surface. Moreover, only 13-80% of females participate in mating. In different areas this occurs in March-April. Pregnancy lasts 30-35 days. The female brings from 1-3 to 4-5 cubs and feeds them with milk for about 50 days. Marmots begin to try their first grass at the age of 40 days, but for the first few months they are strongly attached to their parents and do not move away from the hole. Having learned to hide from predators, they begin to lead the same lifestyle as adults, but continue to live in a hole with their parents. Having reached sexual maturity, they finally separate and create a new family in a separate burrow. Reproduction begins at the age of 1-3 years. In nature, the life expectancy of marmots is only 4-5 years, in captivity it is 10-14.

Yellow-bellied marmot cubs with their mother.

Predators play a huge role in the life of marmots, because these animals have a lot of enemies. They are hunted by wolves, coyotes, foxes, steppe ferrets, cougars, red lynxes, manulas, snakes, eagles, golden eagles and other birds of prey. To protect their lives, marmots are forced to constantly stand guard, standing up in a column and looking around the surroundings. The only salvation from danger is a deep hole and mutual assistance of brothers giving warning signals. In an effort to hide in a hole, a marmot is capable of running at speeds of up to 16 km/h, while they usually move only at a speed of 3 km/h. At the same time, the caught animal is able to resist and can bite hard with its sharp incisors. In addition, fleas, ticks and nematodes (worms) pose a danger to marmots, which, when heavily infested, weaken the young. These animals can also suffer from “human” diseases: tularemia, rabies, Rocky Mountain fever, hepatitis, atherosclerosis.

Alpine marmot cubs (Marmota marmota) started playing.

People have always treated these animals with some hostility. All sorts of accusations were brought against these animals. They were not loved because they eat a lot of grass (they take food away from livestock), dig holes (horses often fall into them and break their legs), and carry infectious diseases. In reality, this harm is greatly exaggerated. Although marmots eat grass, they do not eat cereal grains, so they do not damage crops. Marmot burrows do interfere with movement, but they also increase soil fertility through aeration, loosening the soil and fertilizing it with droppings. Although marmots can be carriers of diseases, they do not settle in human homes, and their fertility does not contribute to outbreaks of infections.

But the only thing for which people valued marmots turned against these animals. And they were valued for their tasty meat and high-quality fur. Marmot meat is juicy and fatty, and the weight of one animal is comparable to the weight of a rabbit, so marmots have always been hunted by both nomads and modern sport hunting enthusiasts. The fur of these animals is warm, quite soft and beautiful despite its modest coloring. They hunt marmots with a gun, but hunting with birds of prey, in particular golden eagles, is considered especially prestigious.

A female of the rare Vancouver marmot (Marmota vancouverensis) with her calf. In 2003, the population of this species decreased to 30 individuals, but thanks to captive breeding it increased 10 times.

Due to commercial hunting and plowing of virgin lands, the number of these animals has greatly decreased. Thus, the Vancouver marmot is on the verge of extinction - a narrow endemic that lives only on the Canadian island of Vancouver; now its population numbers only 300 individuals. The range of the Menzbir marmot (Western Tien Shan) is slightly wider, but it is also listed in the Red Book. Even the steppe marmot, or boibak, which has a wide range, is very few in number in its western part (in Ukraine). The Mongolian and wood marmots are quite prosperous, and commercial and sport hunting is permitted. At a young age, marmots are easily tamed, and they transfer their innate “nepotism” to the teacher and become very attached to the person caring for him. However, breeding of most species in captivity is problematic; only woodchucks, which are not uncommon, are bred for medical research. The remaining species need protection, so when meeting marmots, you should not kill them, disturb them or destroy their holes, and then their sonorous whistle will always enliven the mountains and steppes.

The bobak (Latin: Marmota bobak) is a large rodent from the genus Marmot (Latin: Marmota) of the Squirrel family (Latin: Sciuridae). It is also called the steppe marmot. This is a very peaceful, sociable and hardworking creature.

Relationship with a person

In ancient times, boibaks were revered by many peoples living in the steppe regions of Eurasia. The Mongols considered them as relatives of people, which did not stop them from organizing grandiose hunts for them. Later, boibaks became sacred animals among Muslims.

Every morning the rodent crawls out of its hole at sunrise. He stands on his hind legs and, squeaking joyfully, cleans his fur and eyes with his front paws.

From the outside, this resembles prayer, so the nomads who converted to Islam treated such a devout animal with great respect and tried not to offend it.

Gradually, a reassessment of values ​​occurred. From the second half of the 17th century, products made from marmot fur became popular in Europe and the Middle East. Over two centuries of hunting, the previously abundant boibak population has decreased significantly, and the relict species itself is on the verge of extinction. The population decline was also facilitated by the uncontrolled plowing of the steppes, which deprived the rodent of its usual habitats.

In 1955, the number of boibaks fell to a catastrophic level of 4 thousand individuals. Thanks to the measures taken and the creation of protected areas, the species was preserved. Currently, its number has reached 90-100 thousand. Small isolated colonies live in the steppes of Ukraine, southern Russia and Kazakhstan. There are two subspecies: M.b. bobak and M.b. tschaganensis.

Behavior

Baibaks differ from other types of marmots by the presence of a short tail, the size of which does not exceed 14-15 cm, and a uniform yellowish-sandy color of fur interspersed with black hair.

Their natural habitat is flat areas with abundant cereal and herb vegetation. Animals establish colonies by digging numerous burrows for housing. One animal can have up to ten or more burrows up to 100 m long, used for completely different purposes. In some he hides from enemies or rests, while in others he breeds offspring or spends the winter.

The construction of underground structures consisting of several tiers can last for several years in a row. As a result, a real mound appears above the hole, up to 1 m high and up to 5-8 m in diameter, the so-called marmot.

Baybak likes to sit on top of his personal mound and watch the surroundings. When danger approaches, it gives a signal to its relatives with a sharp whistle and slowly disappears into its home.

The animals do not make provisions for the winter, spending the winter cold in hibernation. In early March, after the snow melts, they wake up and crawl out of their holes emaciated and very hungry, so they immediately start searching for germinating grass, bulbs and rhizomes. Within a month, they manage to eat up to their normal state, switching to two meals a day in the morning and in the evening.

Their diet includes various wild grains and herbs. Wild oats, clover and wheatgrass are especially respected. During the hot summer, boibaks can take walks that are quite long for them, reaching several tens of meters, in search of succulent grasses.

Along with grass, they also eat mollusks, caterpillars and insect larvae. In captivity they can eat meat, although in nature they adhere to a vegetarian diet. The boibak considers agricultural crops tasteless and does not consume them under natural conditions.

Steppe marmots move in short runs and can reach speeds of up to 15 km/h. In case of danger, they try to hide in the first hole they come across on the way. The natural enemies of bobbacks are foxes, wolves, badgers, ferrets and birds of prey.

Reproduction

The mating season begins at the end of May and lasts until mid-April. The nesting chamber is established at a depth of 2-3 m and is lined with soft, dry grass and roots.

Depending on climatic conditions, pregnancy lasts from 30 to 35 days. 3-6 naked and blind babies are born. Their body length is 9-10 cm, and their weight does not exceed 40 g. Their eyes open on the 23rd day. Milk feeding lasts about 50 days.

Marmots begin to switch to plant foods gradually, starting from the 6th week of life. Having grown stronger, babies often leave their parents’ holes and become adopted by their neighbors, but usually live with their parents until they are two years old. Upon reaching this age, they become sexually mature and begin to build their own burrows.

Boibaks molt once a year from May to August-September. The older the animal, the longer the molting lasts.

All summer the animal feeds intensively, eating up to 1.5 kg of plant food daily. By the end of summer, bobbacks accumulate up to 1.2 kg of fat. Particularly responsible males can fatten up to 10 kg of live weight.

In early September, the animals gather in their wintering burrows in a friendly group of 2 to 25 individuals, having previously built warm nests from a large amount of dry grass. Before the start of winter hibernation, rodents carefully close all entrances to their underground dwellings with a mixture of their feces, earth and small stones.

Description

The body length of an adult bobak reaches 58-60 cm. In summer, the weight is 5-6 kg and can double by autumn, thanks to increased fattening. The fur color is camouflage and differs slightly depending on the habitat. It is predominantly sandy yellow.

The tips of the guard hairs are black, giving the back and upper body a dark appearance. The cheeks are reddish, the eyes are decorated with brown or black spots. The belly is dark, the tip of the tail is dark brown. Albinos are extremely rare.

The lifespan of bobaks in natural conditions is about 8 years.

Taxonomy

Russian name: steppe marmot, boibak

Latin name – Marmota bobak

English name – Bobak marmot

Class – Mammals (Mammalia)

Order – Rodents (Rodentia)

Family – Squirrels (Sciuridae)

Genus – Marmots (Marmota)

The word “marmot” is formed using the suffix “ok” from the word “sur” borrowed from the Turkic language. The word is onomatopoeic, reminiscent of the sound made by an animal when in danger. The original Russian name is “whistle”.

There are 3 subspecies within the range.

Conservation status

According to international status, the marmot is classified as a species whose existence is of least concern - UICN (LC). However, throughout most of its range the bobak requires protection. For example, in the Omsk region it is included in the regional Red Book.

Due to the plowing of the steppes, reforestation work and intensive fishing, the number of bobak decreased sharply in the 20th century. The situation was most difficult in the 40-50s. 20th century, but protective measures ensured the safety of the species in local outbreaks in Ukraine, the Ulyanovsk and Saratov regions, and Tatarstan. Subsequently, work was carried out to re-acclimatize and introduce boibak to the most favorable places for it. In recent decades, the boibak's range has begun to expand and its numbers to grow. By the beginning of the 2000s. the number of the European subspecies reached almost 210,000 individuals, the Kazakh subspecies - almost 113 thousand.

Species and man

The number and range of boibak are greatly influenced by anthropogenic factors, both direct and indirect. Indirect (and most important!) include the plowing of steppes, which deprives animals of their usual habitat. But there is also a hunt for marmots. They are hunted for their warm and light fur. The meat of these marmots is quite edible, it is especially valued in some areas of Mongolia, and the fat is used in technology and folk medicine. The bobak does not cause much harm to agriculture, since, as a rule, it does not eat cultivated plants.

In colloquial speech, the word “baibak” is used quite often. This is what they call a clumsy, baggy person, a lazy person and a sleepyhead. The long hibernation of all marmots, including boars, gave rise to the saying “sleeps like a marmot.”

Distribution and habitats

The baybak inhabits the open spaces of Eastern Europe and Northern Kazakhstan. Now the habitat of the boibak is mosaic in nature; it has survived only where the unplowed steppe has been preserved. Baibak is an inhabitant of flat grass-forb and turf-grass and dry grass-wormwood steppes. Living on lands occupied by vegetable and grain crops is not typical for boibak; Animals settle in such biotopes reluctantly and temporarily. They either quickly leave these crops or die.

Appearance

Baibak is one of the rather large marmots: body length up to 59 cm, tail length up to 15 cm; the weight of males that have eaten before hibernation is up to 5.7 kg.

The bobak's fur is short and soft. The color of the back is sandy yellow with black or dark brown ripples. The belly is slightly darker and redder than the sides, and the top of the head is darker than the back. The cheeks are light, there are dark streaks under the eyes. The end of the tail is black.

Lifestyle and social behavior

Boibaks live in families, forming large perennial colonies. Each family occupies a certain territory, which it protects from the invasion of strangers. The size of a family plot can range from 0.5 to 6 hectares. Adult animals regularly walk around their property, leaving odorous marks on the border. Scent glands are found on the face, the soles of the front paws and at the base of the tail. Border conflicts among the Baibaks are rare; neighbors usually live peacefully.

Marmot burrows vary in complexity depending on their purpose. Protective (temporary) burrows are small, short, with one entrance, without a nesting chamber; Marmots hide in them from danger and occasionally spend the night. The marmot has up to 10 such burrows within the boundaries of its feeding area.

Permanent burrows are more complex, and they can be winter or summer. Summer (brood) burrows are a complex system of passages and have from 6 to 15 exits to the surface. Several burrows branch off from the main passage of the burrow, in which the boibaks arrange latrines. At a depth of 2-3 m there is a nesting chamber into which the animals drag dry grass and other plant debris. Wintering burrows are simpler in structure, but the main living chamber in them is located deeper (at a depth of 5-7 m) in the non-freezing horizon. Residential burrows are used by several generations of marmots for a long time, sometimes several hundred years.

The total length of passages and burrows in a permanent burrow sometimes reaches 60 m or more. When constructing a permanent burrow, up to ten cubic meters of soil are thrown onto the surface, resulting in the formation of a marmot hill. The height of such a hill can reach 1 m with a diameter of 3-10 m. On the marmot, near the residential burrow, there is a compacted “observation” platform, from where marmots inspect the surroundings. In places densely populated by marmots, up to 10% of the surface is covered with marmots. The composition of the soil, the nature of the vegetation, and even the world of invertebrate animals in the marmots are noticeably different from the rest of the area, so marmots play a large role in the steppe biocenoses.

By the end of summer, marmots accumulate up to 800-1200 g of fat, which is 20-25% of their weight. They leave their burrows less and less, settling in them for the winter. At the end of August-September (no later than the 20th), marmots gather in wintering burrows in groups of 2-5 to 20-25 individuals. They go into hibernation as a family: together with their parents, both this year’s young and last year’s litter lie down in the same hole. They close all entrances to the burrow with plugs made from a mixture of feces, earth and stones. The air temperature in the burrow, even in severe frosts, does not drop below 0°C. During hibernation, all life processes in marmots freeze, body temperature drops from 36-38o to 4.6-7.6o, breathing slows down to 2-3 breaths per minute instead of the normal 20-24, and heartbeat to 3-15 beats per minute. minute instead of 88-140. In winter, marmots do not eat and hardly move, subsisting on accumulated fat reserves. However, since energy expenditure during hibernation is small, in the spring the animals wake up quite well-fed, with fat reserves of 100-200 g.

Boibaks emerge from hibernation in late February-early March, so hibernation lasts at least 6 months. Having fattened up a little, the marmots begin to repair and dig new protective holes, and then begin to repair residential holes.

Boibaks are active during the day; they become active at sunrise. On the surface, animals of the same colony maintain visual (column posture) and sound communication with each other (a whistle indicating danger). Usually several animals act as sentinels while others feed. Hearing in marmots is less developed than vision, so the main signal is not a whistle, but the sight of a running relative. Seeing this, all the inhabitants of the colony also rush to the holes. In the middle of the day, marmots rest in their burrows, and in the evening they come out again to feed. They spend 12-16 hours a day on the surface of the earth.

The marmot moves in short bursts, periodically stopping and freezing in place. Fleeing from pursuit, it runs quite quickly, reaching speeds of 12-15 km/h on flat areas and trying to hide in the nearest hole. The character of boibaks is quite peaceful, and fights between them rarely occur.

Marmots have few enemies, mostly stray dogs and foxes. Young marmots are hunted by eagles, as well as badgers, corsacs and even horis.

Nutrition and feeding behavior

Baibaks feed on succulent young shoots, leaves and flowers of forbs and cereals. While feeding, they bite down plants over large areas, but due to the fact that they show a certain selectivity, they do not disturb the vegetation cover of the steppe, as herds of ungulates often do.

The food of marmots is seasonal. In the spring they eat mainly overwintered rhizomes and plant bulbs, in the summer - young shoots, leaves, and flowers. At the end of summer, when the steppe vegetation burns out, marmots have to move far from home in search of wet areas. Seeds in the stomachs of boibaks are not digested and are scattered along with the droppings. This is why marmots prefer not to settle among cereal crops. Marmots do not drink water, content with the liquid contained in plants. They do not stock up for the winter.

Reproduction and parental behavior.

In April-March, the mating season begins for boibaks. Pregnancy lasts 30-35 days, in a litter of 3-6 cubs. Newborn marmots are naked and blind, 9-11 cm long and weighing 30-40 g (this is about 1% of the mother’s weight). Their eyes open very late, only on the 23rd day. During pregnancy and feeding of the young, the male moves into another burrow. The female feeds milk for up to 50 days, although at the age of 40 days in late May-early June, marmots already begin to eat young greens. Marmots stay with their parents until next summer, after which they build their own burrows. But they often spend the second wintering in the same burrow with their parents.

Marmots become sexually mature in the 3rd year of life.

Lifespan

In captivity, boibaks safely lived up to 8 years.

The story of life at the zoo

Since 2011, 3 bobbacks (2 females and 1 male) have lived in our zoo. As in nature, they are active in the summer - they eat and dig holes, and sleep in the winter. In the first years, zoo staff made wintering holes for them, and then the marmots began to dig on their own. In the fall of 2016, each animal dug a separate hole for itself, since they are not a family.

In recent years, when in Russia (as in the USA) they are trying to celebrate Groundhog Day, all the media and many visitors really want our groundhogs to predict the coming of spring. But we have a different climate (and the type of marmots is different), and our marmots are still fast asleep on February 2. When spring is early, like in 2017, they woke up in early March.

The marmots live in an enclosure with natural soil, but the staff had to make a cement base underneath it because they started digging so actively that they almost went “for a walk around the zoo.”

Zoo visitors may notice that there is a special fence along the lower edge of the enclosure. It had to be built in order to save the fingers of visitors. Marmots seem cute and clumsy (they are boars!), but they bite really well.

The diet of boibaks in the zoo consists exclusively of plant foods (vegetables, grass) in an amount of about 500 g per day.

Photos by Anastasia Kadetova

: its body length is 50-70 cm, the weight of fattened males reaches 10 kg. The body of the boibak is thick, with short, strong legs armed with large claws. The head is large, flattened, the neck is short.

The bobak is easily distinguished from other marmots by its short tail (no more than 15 cm) and uniform sandy-yellow color. Due to the dark tips of the guard hairs, its back is covered with dark brown or black ripples, condensing at the back of the head and on the top of the head. Cheeks light reddish; brown or black streaks under the eyes. The belly is noticeably darker and redder than the sides; the end of the tail is dark brown. There are albino marmots. Boibaks molt once a year; begins in May and ends (in old marmots) by the end of August, sometimes dragging on until September.

Spreading

In the past, boibak was widespread throughout the steppe and partly forest-steppe zone from Hungary to the Irtysh (absent in the Crimea and Ciscaucasia, but currently boibak is observed in the steppe part of Crimea, on the Tarkhankut Peninsula), but under the influence of the plowing of virgin lands it disappeared almost everywhere, surviving only in areas of untouched virgin land on the Don, in the Middle Volga region, the southern Urals and in Kazakhstan. Now the bobak lives in the Rostov, Volgograd regions, Belgorod, Voronezh (Stone Steppe between the Bityug and Khopyor rivers), Kursk region, Samara region, in the northeast of the Saratov, in the south of the Ulyanovsk and Nizhny Novgorod regions, as well as in Chuvashia, Tatarstan and Bashkortostan . On the territory of Ukraine it is found in several isolated foci in Lugansk, Sumy (Romny district), Kharkov and Zaporozhye regions. Beyond the Urals and Northern Kazakhstan, its range is less fragmented; here boibak is found from the river. Ural to Irtysh: in the Orenburg and Chelyabinsk regions, in the south of the Omsk region of Russia, in the northern part of the West Kazakhstan, western part of the Aktobe, Kustanay, North Kazakhstan, in the north of the Karaganda and East Kazakhstan regions of Kazakhstan.

Lifestyle and nutrition

Baibak is a natural inhabitant of lowland grass-forb steppes. If the steppe is plowed, marmots soon go to the nearest virgin land or, in extreme cases, to “inconvenient” areas: fallow lands, unplowed slopes of ravines, gullies, river valleys, boundaries, pastures, and even to the sides of country roads. Areas suitable for boibak habitat now make up a small proportion of arable land. It is uncharacteristic for it to live in grain and vegetable crops; In such places, the boibak settles temporarily and forcedly. It lingers for longer periods on perennial grass crops. Moderate grazing and close proximity to humans do not affect it.

Boibaks live in large, perennial colonies, making burrows of various purposes and complexity for housing. Protective (temporary) burrows are small, short, with one entrance, without a nesting chamber; Marmots hide in them from danger and occasionally spend the night. The marmot has up to 10 such burrows within its feeding area. Permanent burrows are more complex and can be winter or summer. Summer (brood) burrows are a complex system of passages; they are connected to the surface by several (up to 6-15) exits. A series of holes or dead ends branch off from the main passage of the burrow, in which marmots build latrines. At a depth of 2-3 m there is a nesting chamber with a volume of up to 0.5-0.8 m³, into which the marmot drags dry grass and roots. Winter (wintering) burrows can be simpler, but the nesting chambers in them are located deeper, in non-freezing soil horizons - up to 5-7 m from the surface. There are also summer-winter burrows. The total length of the passages and burrows of a permanent burrow reaches 57-63 m. In particularly complex burrows there are several chambers of different sizes, and the passages form several floors. When constructing a permanent burrow, up to ten cubic meters of soil are thrown onto the surface, forming a marmot hill. Usually, marmot stands out sharply against the background of steppe chernozem with a lighter color; The soil here is drier, saturated with nitrogen and minerals from marmot droppings. The height of the hill reaches 40-100 cm with a diameter of 3-10 m. On the marmot, near the inhabited burrow, there is a trampled area from where marmots inspect the surroundings. The rest of the marmot is gradually covered with vegetation that is very different from the surrounding flora: wormwood, wheatgrass, and kermek grow here. In places densely populated by marmots, up to 10% of the surface is covered with marmots, which is why the landscape takes on a peculiar wavy character.

Nutrition

Boibaks feed on plant foods. Their favorite plants are wild oats ( Avena sativa), wheatgrass ( Agropyrum cristatum), chicory ( Cichorium intybus), clover ( Trifolium repens) and field bindweed ( Convolvulus arvensis); Vegetable and agricultural crops are rarely damaged. Feeding specialization is seasonal and consists in the preference for different parts of the plant. Thus, in early spring, marmots eat mainly overwintered rhizomes and bulbs; in summer - young sprouts of cereals and herbs, as well as flowers. In the second half of summer, when the steppe vegetation burns out, boibaks move further and further from their burrows in search of wet areas with lush grass. Ripe fruits and seeds in their stomachs are not digested, scattering along with the droppings. During the day of fattening, the bobak eats up to 1-1.5 kg of plant mass. He usually does not drink water, content with the moisture contained in plants or morning dew. It also consumes animal food - locusts, mollusks, caterpillars, ant pupae, usually eating them along with grass. However, in captivity, marmots willingly eat meat, including the meat of their relatives, although in nature they do not feed on vertebrates. The bobak does not make any reserves for the winter.

Lifestyle

Boibaks emerge from hibernation at the end of February - beginning of March. Having fattened up a little, they begin to repair or dig new protective holes; later - to correct and expand residential burrows. Activities begin at sunrise, when the animals wake up and go to feed. On the surface, marmots maintain visual (postures in a column) and sound (roll call, danger signal) communication. Usually two marmots in a colony act as sentinels while the others feed. The marmot's hearing is less developed than its vision, so the main signal of danger is not so much a whistle as the sight of a relative running towards the hole. Seeing this, other marmots also rush to the holes, even if there was no scream. At noon, bobbacks usually rest in their burrows, and in the evening they go out to feed again. They spend 12-16 hours on the surface of the earth.

The marmot moves in fits and starts, sometimes stopping and freezing in place. Fleeing from pursuit, it runs quite quickly, reaching a speed of 12 - 15 km/h on flat areas, and tries to hide in the nearest hole.

In March-April, the bobaks begin their mating season. Pregnancy lasts 30-35 days; Usually there are 3-6 cubs in a litter. Newborn marmots are naked and blind, 9-11 cm long and weighing 30-40 g (this is about 1% of the mother’s weight). Their eyes open only on the 23rd day. During pregnancy and milk feeding, the male moves to another burrow. The female feeds milk for up to 50 days, although at the age of 40 days, in late May - early June, marmots already begin to eat grass. It was previously believed that marmot families consisted of parents and two broods of young children. But observations of tagged animals have shown that some of the yearlings leave their family and settle in other families as foster children, and their parents, in turn, accept other people’s cubs. Marmots stay with their parents until next summer, after which they build their own burrows. But they also spend the second wintering with their parents. In general, marmots have a peaceful character; they rarely fight and only drive away alien animals.

By the end of summer, the marmot accumulates up to 800-1200 g of fat, which amounts to 20-25% of its weight. Animals leave their burrows less and less; they renew nests by dragging dry grass into them. At the end of August - September (no later than the 20th), marmots gather in wintering burrows in groups of 2-5 to 20-24 individuals. They clog all the entrances to the burrow with dense plugs made from a mixture of feces, earth and stones and fall into deep hibernation, which lasts 6-8 months. The air temperature in the burrow, even in severe frosts, does not drop below 0 °C. During hibernation, the life processes of marmots almost freeze: body temperature drops from 36-38 to 4.6-7.6 °C, breathing slows down to 2-3 breaths per minute instead of the normal 20-24, and heartbeat - to 3-15 beats per minute instead of 88-140. In winter, marmots do not eat and hardly move, subsisting on stored fat reserves. However, since energy expenditure during hibernation is low, in the spring marmots often wake up quite well-fed, with a reserve of 100-200 g of fat.

Number

Due to the plowing of the steppes, reforestation and intensive fishing, the number of boibaks increased by decreased sharply. The situation was most critical in the 40-50s. XX century, but the protection measures taken ensured the conservation of the species in local foci in Ukraine, the Ulyanovsk and Saratov regions, Tatarstan and its subsequent re-acclimatization and introduction in a number of regions. In recent decades, the range has begun to expand and the number of bobak to grow. The most numerous bobak are in the Rostov and Ulyanovsk regions. The colonies of its Kazakhstan subspecies are quite stable in the Orenburg and Chelyabinsk regions. The number of the European subspecies of boibak in the city reached 209,700 individuals, the Kazakh subspecies - 112,800 individuals. Despite the permission of licensed hunting in the Central, Volga and Southern Federal Districts, the number of bobak continues to grow. In the Omsk region, the animal is listed in the Red Book.

Baibak is hunted for its warm and light fur. Its meat is edible (it is highly prized in some areas of Mongolia), and the fat has been used in technology and folk medicine. For agriculture, boibak is practically harmless - it rarely touches cultivated plants; occasionally eats alfalfa and sunflower. In gardens raised in marmot colonies, they sometimes eat cabbage and aerial parts of carrots. Baibak is a popular object of special hunting - Varminting, in which shooting is carried out from a long distance from a special weapon.

Symbolism

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Excerpt characterizing Baybak

Boris did not succeed in marrying a rich bride in St. Petersburg and he came to Moscow for the same purpose. In Moscow, Boris was indecisive between the two richest brides - Julie and Princess Marya. Although Princess Marya, despite her ugliness, seemed more attractive to him than Julie, for some reason he felt awkward courting Bolkonskaya. On her last meeting with her, on the old prince’s name day, to all his attempts to talk to her about feelings, she answered him inappropriately and obviously did not listen to him.
Julie, on the contrary, although in a special way peculiar to her, willingly accepted his courtship.
Julie was 27 years old. After the death of her brothers, she became very rich. She was now completely ugly; but I thought that she was not only just as good, but even much more attractive than she was before. She was supported in this delusion by the fact that, firstly, she became a very rich bride, and secondly, that the older she became, the safer she was for men, the freer it was for men to treat her and, without taking on any obligations, take advantage of her dinners, evenings and the lively company that gathered at her place. A man who ten years ago would have been afraid to go every day to the house where there was a 17-year-old young lady, so as not to compromise her and tie himself down, now went to her boldly every day and treated her not as a young bride, but as a acquaintance who has no gender.
The Karagins' house was the most pleasant and hospitable house in Moscow that winter. In addition to parties and dinners, every day a large company gathered at the Karagins, especially men, who dined at 12 o'clock in the morning and stayed until 3 o'clock. There was no ball, party, or theater that Julie missed. Her toilets were always the most fashionable. But, despite this, Julie seemed disappointed in everything, telling everyone that she did not believe in friendship, nor in love, nor in any joys of life, and expected peace only there. She adopted the tone of a girl who had suffered great disappointment, a girl as if she had lost a loved one or had been cruelly deceived by him. Although nothing of the sort happened to her, they looked at her as if she were one, and she herself even believed that she had suffered a lot in life. This melancholy, which did not prevent her from having fun, did not prevent the young people who visited her from having a pleasant time. Each guest, coming to them, paid his debt to the melancholy mood of the hostess and then engaged in small talk, dancing, mental games, and Burime tournaments, which were in fashion with the Karagins. Only some young people, including Boris, delved deeper into Julie’s melancholic mood, and with these young people she had longer and more private conversations about the vanity of everything worldly, and to them she opened her albums covered with sad images, sayings and poems.
Julie was especially kind to Boris: she regretted his early disappointment in life, offered him those consolations of friendship that she could offer, having suffered so much in life, and opened her album to him. Boris drew two trees in her album and wrote: Arbres rustiques, vos sombres rameaux secouent sur moi les tenebres et la melancolie. [Rural trees, your dark branches shake off darkness and melancholy on me.]
Elsewhere he drew a picture of a tomb and wrote:
"La mort est secourable et la mort est tranquille
“Ah! contre les douleurs il n"y a pas d"autre asile".
[Death is salutary and death is calm;
ABOUT! against suffering there is no other refuge.]
Julie said it was lovely.
“II y a quelque chose de si ravissant dans le sourire de la melancolie, [There is something infinitely charming in the smile of melancholy," she said to Boris word for word, copying this passage from the book.
– C"est un rayon de lumiere dans l"ombre, une nuance entre la douleur et le desespoir, qui montre la consolation possible. [This is a ray of light in the shadows, a shade between sadness and despair, which indicates the possibility of consolation.] - To this Boris wrote her poetry:
"Aliment de poison d"une ame trop sensible,
"Toi, sans qui le bonheur me serait impossible,
"Tendre melancolie, ah, viens me consoler,
“Viens calmer les tourments de ma sombre retraite
"Et mele une douceur secrete
"A ces pleurs, que je sens couler."
[Poisonous food for an overly sensitive soul,
You, without whom happiness would be impossible for me,
Tender melancholy, oh, come and comfort me,
Come, soothe the torment of my dark solitude
And add secret sweetness
To these tears that I feel flowing.]
Julie played Boris the saddest nocturnes on the harp. Boris read Poor Liza aloud to her and more than once interrupted his reading from the excitement that took his breath away. Meeting in a large society, Julie and Boris looked at each other as the only indifferent people in the world who understood each other.
Anna Mikhailovna, who often went to the Karagins, making up her mother’s party, meanwhile made correct inquiries about what was given for Julie (both Penza estates and Nizhny Novgorod forests were given). Anna Mikhailovna, with devotion to the will of Providence and tenderness, looked at the refined sadness that connected her son with the rich Julie.
“Toujours charmante et melancolique, cette chere Julieie,” she said to her daughter. - Boris says that he rests his soul in your house. “He has suffered so many disappointments and is so sensitive,” she told her mother.
“Oh, my friend, how attached I have become to Julie lately,” she said to her son, “I can’t describe to you!” And who can not love her? This is such an unearthly creature! Ah, Boris, Boris! “She fell silent for a minute. “And how I feel sorry for her maman,” she continued, “today she showed me reports and letters from Penza (they have a huge estate) and she is poor, all alone: ​​she is so deceived!
Boris smiled slightly as he listened to his mother. He meekly laughed at her simple-minded cunning, but listened and sometimes asked her carefully about the Penza and Nizhny Novgorod estates.
Julie had long been expecting a proposal from her melancholic admirer and was ready to accept it; but some secret feeling of disgust for her, for her passionate desire to get married, for her unnaturalness, and a feeling of horror at renouncing the possibility of true love still stopped Boris. His vacation was already over. He spent whole days and every single day with the Karagins, and every day, reasoning with himself, Boris told himself that he would propose tomorrow. But in the presence of Julie, looking at her red face and chin, almost always covered with powder, at her moist eyes and at the expression of her face, which always expressed a readiness to immediately move from melancholy to the unnatural delight of marital happiness, Boris could not utter a decisive word: despite the fact that for a long time in his imagination he considered himself the owner of Penza and Nizhny Novgorod estates and distributed the use of income from them. Julie saw Boris's indecisiveness and sometimes the thought occurred to her that she was disgusting to him; but immediately the woman’s self-delusion came to her as a consolation, and she told herself that he was shy only out of love. Her melancholy, however, began to turn into irritability, and not long before Boris left, she undertook a decisive plan. At the same time that Boris's vacation was ending, Anatol Kuragin appeared in Moscow and, of course, in the Karagins' living room, and Julie, unexpectedly leaving her melancholy, became very cheerful and attentive to Kuragin.
“Mon cher,” Anna Mikhailovna said to her son, “je sais de bonne source que le Prince Basile envoie son fils a Moscou pour lui faire epouser Julieie.” [My dear, I know from reliable sources that Prince Vasily sends his son to Moscow in order to marry him to Julie.] I love Julie so much that I would feel sorry for her. What do you think, my friend? - said Anna Mikhailovna.
The thought of being a fool and wasting this whole month of difficult melancholy service under Julie and seeing all the income from the Penza estates already allocated and properly used in his imagination in the hands of another - especially in the hands of the stupid Anatole, offended Boris. He went to the Karagins with the firm intention of proposing. Julie greeted him with a cheerful and carefree look, casually talked about how much fun she had at yesterday's ball, and asked when he was leaving. Despite the fact that Boris came with the intention of talking about his love and therefore intended to be gentle, he irritably began to talk about women's inconstancy: how women can easily move from sadness to joy and that their mood depends only on who looks after them. Julie was offended and said that it was true that a woman needs variety, that everyone will get tired of the same thing.
“For this, I would advise you...” Boris began, wanting to tell her a caustic word; but at that very moment the offensive thought came to him that he could leave Moscow without achieving his goal and losing his work for nothing (which had never happened to him). He stopped in the middle of his speech, lowered his eyes so as not to see her unpleasantly irritated and indecisive face and said: “I didn’t come here at all to quarrel with you.” On the contrary...” He glanced at her to make sure he could continue. All her irritation suddenly disappeared, and her restless, pleading eyes were fixed on him with greedy expectation. “I can always arrange it so that I rarely see her,” thought Boris. “And the work has begun and must be done!” He blushed, looked up at her and told her: “You know my feelings for you!” There was no need to say any more: Julie’s face shone with triumph and self-satisfaction; but she forced Boris to tell her everything that is said in such cases, to say that he loves her, and has never loved any woman more than her. She knew that she could demand this for the Penza estates and Nizhny Novgorod forests and she received what she demanded.
The bride and groom, no longer remembering the trees that showered them with darkness and melancholy, made plans for the future arrangement of a brilliant house in St. Petersburg, made visits and prepared everything for a brilliant wedding.

Count Ilya Andreich arrived in Moscow at the end of January with Natasha and Sonya. The Countess was still unwell and could not travel, but it was impossible to wait for her recovery: Prince Andrei was expected to go to Moscow every day; in addition, it was necessary to purchase a dowry, it was necessary to sell the property near Moscow, and it was necessary to take advantage of the presence of the old prince in Moscow to introduce him to his future daughter-in-law. The Rostovs' house in Moscow was not heated; in addition, they arrived for a short time, the countess was not with them, and therefore Ilya Andreich decided to stay in Moscow with Marya Dmitrievna Akhrosimova, who had long offered her hospitality to the count.
Late in the evening, four of the Rostovs' carts drove into Marya Dmitrievna's yard in the old Konyushennaya. Marya Dmitrievna lived alone. She has already married off her daughter. Her sons were all in the service.