Marmota sibirica

The Tarbagan marmot (Marmota sibirica) is a species of rodent in the family Sciuridae. It is found in China (Inner Mongolia and Heilongjiang), northern and western Mongolia, and Russia (southwest Siberia, Tuva, Transbaikalia). In the Mongolian Altai the range overlaps with that of the Gray marmot. The species was classified as endangered by the IUCN in 2008. Two subspecies are recognized: The tarbagan marmot has been eaten for centuries in the native cuisine of Mongolia, and in particular in a local dish called boodog. The meat is cooked by inserting hot stones, preheated in a fire, into the abdominal cavity of a deboned marmot. The skin is then tied up to make a bag within which the meat cooks. Hunting of marmots for food is typically done in autumn when the animals are heavier since they are preparing for hibernation. The Russian explorer Richard Maack, who encountered tarbagans in the Ingoda Valley in Siberia, described the tarbagan hunt as follows: Epizootics of the plague have been considered to occur in tarbagan marmots in northeastern China and Mongolia, but the research for whether the tarbagan is able to infect humans is inconclusive. The plague in marmots is of the pneumonic form, spread by marmots coughing. It had been debated whether the plague can jump from marmots to humans through the bite of the tarbagan flea (Ceratophyllus silantievi), or through consumption of marmot meat until a Russian couple contracted the plague and died from eating the uncooked meat after a vacation to Mongolia. Marmot epizootics are known to co-occur with human epidemics in the same area. Human plague epidemics in this area are largely pneumonic plague, one of the most deadly forms of plague.