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Himalayan marmot

species of mammal

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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJun 15, 2026
Entity authorityQ922076 ↗
Source-derived summary

The Himalayan marmot (Marmota himalayana) is a marmot species that inhabits alpine grasslands throughout the Himalayas and on the Tibetan Plateau. It is IUCN Red Listed as Least Concern because of its wide range and possibly large population.

Taxonomy

Arctomys himalayanus was the scientific name proposed by Brian Houghton Hodgson in 1841 who described marmot skins from the Himalayas. In the 19th century, several Himalayan marmot specimens were described and proposed as subspecies. Two genetically distinct subspecies are recognized today:

M. h. himalayana

M. h. robusta (Milne-Edwards, 1871) – Szechwan marmot

The Himalayan marmot is very closely related to the Tarbagan marmot (M. sibirica) and somewhat more distantly to the black-capped marmot (M. camtschatica). These three form a species group, with their next nearest relatives being the bobak species group, which includes the bobak marmot (M. bobak) itself, as well as the grey marmot (M. baibacina) and forest-steppe marmot (M. kastschenkoi). In the past, the relatively short-furred and short-tailed marmots of the Palearctic region, i.e. Himalayan, Tarbagan, grey and forest-steppe, were all regarded as subspecies of the bobak marmot.

Editorial summary

“Himalayan marmot” enters the record as species of mammal. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Himalayan, marmot and species can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewUseful for establishing the present vocabulary of the subject while preserving a route back to the evidence on which that vocabulary rests. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1841, 1871—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Himalayan, marmot and species.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Himalayan marmot” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Himalayan, marmot and species provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

The date and method of observation matter as much as the stated conclusion, especially where classification or consensus has changed. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 15, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q922076. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1841 and 1871.

Critical limits

Scientific names, classifications and consensus can change while older terminology persists in catalogues and historical literature. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

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  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Himalayan marmot”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Himalayan marmot primary sources, Himalayan marmot archive and Himalayan research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

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  3. Has classification or technical consensus changed since the cited source?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Himalayan marmot” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.