WARNING: Eat this and DIE!

Just in case you were on another planet today, Walt relays herewith a too-true story from Mongolia, where a husband and wife ate... raw... the organs and flesh of one of these things, in the belief that doing so would be good for their health.

They were wrong. The animal pictured is a marmot. Marmots are rodents, like those cute squirrels nibbling on your spring flowers. Or like rats. As is well known, except maybe in Mongolia, rodents are susceptible to the bacterium Yersinia pestis, which causes plague. Plague is perhaps best known for killing millions of people in Europe in the 14th century during a pandemic called the Black Death.

The infection still occurs today, although it is relatively rare. Humans can catch the plague through flea bites or, as in this case, through contact with the tissue or bodily fluids of an infected animal. Shortly after dining on marmot meat, the unfortunate couple developed serious symptoms, including fever and, later, vomiting blood. They died on May Day.

The deaths prompted authorities to impose a quarantine in the area where the couple lived, a town in the Mongolian province of Bayan-Olgii, bordering China and Russia. The quarantine was lifted on May 6th after no additional plague cases had been reported.

So there's your warning, dear readers. Raw marmot meat can be dangerous to your health. Avoid eating it like... errr... the plague. You're welcome.