Marmots are members of the genus Marmota, in the rodent family Sciuridae (squirrels). Marmots are generally large ground squirrels. Those most often referred to as marmots tend to live in mountainous areas such as the Alps, northern Apennines, Carpathians, Tatra, and Pyrenees in Europe, the Rockies and the Sierra Nevada in the United States, and Northern Canada. However, the groundhog's also properly called a marmot, while the similarly-sized but more social prairie dog isn't classified in the… (More on Marmot)