15, see text Marmots are large ground squirrels in the genus Marmota, with 15 species living in Asia, Europe, and North America.

While most species are various forms of earthen-hued brown, marmots vary in fur coloration based roughly on their surroundings.

[11][12] Some species live in mountainous areas, such as the Alps, northern Apennines, Carpathians, Tatras, and Pyrenees in Europe; northwestern Asia; the Rocky Mountains, Black Hills, the Cascade and Pacific Ranges, and the Sierra Nevada in North America; and the Deosai Plateau in Pakistan and Ladakh in India.

Other species prefer rough grassland and can be found widely across North America and the Eurasian Steppe.

Marmots mainly eat greens and many types of grasses, berries, lichens, mosses, roots, and flowers.

Research by the French ethnologist Michel Peissel claimed the story of the "Gold-digging ant" reported by the Ancient Greek historian Herodotus, who lived in the fifth century BCE, was founded on the golden Himalayan marmot of the Deosai Plateau and the habit of local tribes such as the Brokpa to collect the gold dust excavated from their burrows.