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They are fat with short little legs but run pretty fast considering the body they have to work with. However, they'd never win a race with their cousins, the squirrels. Their average size is 20 inches (50 cm) long and 10 pounds (4.5 kg). However, they can be double that size. They have coarse brown and gray fur. It's so coarse that they have never been hunted for it.
Groundhogs are herbivores and especially like clover and other tender grasses and plants. And every once in a while when they decide they don't want to pigeonholed into only one category (herbivores), they sneak in an insect or grub. They feed in groups and always have a lookout. When danger is sensed like a fox nearby, the guard groundhog gives a very shrill warning whistle. That's why the woodchuck/groundhog is called whistlepig by some.
They have 22 teeth to eat this food with. The front two incisors continuously grow (like rodent's teeth do), so they constantly have to be using them to keep them from becoming 10 feet long. They have molars in the back to grind their food. And as with most herbivores, there is a large gap between their front teeth and their back teeth.
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| I found this skull in my backyard in the same area where we see the groundhog holes. Notice the herbivore tooth pattern. |
Groundhogs live in burrows and they are animals that do a true hibernation. That means when they curl their fat bodies up in their burrows in November, they don't emerge to eat until March. Their body temperatures drop and they can't see or feel things. I think it's amazing that some mammals can do this. I usually think about fish or frogs doing the body temperature drop thing in the winter, but groundhogs do it too.
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| Fresh digging (in March) at one of the entrances to the groundhog burrows in the backyard. |
As forests were cut down, groundhogs were one of the animals that increased in population instead of decreased. When forestland was turned into farmland, the groundhogs found out they really liked what the farmer was growing like tomatoes, lettuce, beans, etc. Talk to almost anyone and they can tell you their frustration with the groundhog and what it has eaten out of their garden. Thus the name varmint that the groundhog is not so fondly called by many.
Who knew I had so much to say about groundhogs/woodchucks/whistlepigs? I didn't even get to my personal anecdotes, but this is getting a little long. Those will have to be on another day. I wonder if I can work them in under X, Y, or Z?
Sources:
Woodchucks by Emilie U. Lepthien, Copyright 1992.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groundhog
My husband could tell you a story about a groundhog and his garden ... and it doesn't have a pretty ending. Suffice it to say that they fall under the "varmint" category around here.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure he's not the only one with that kind of story.
DeleteLoved the post and learned so much.
ReplyDeleteGlad you liked it. I started one about Winston Churchill, moved to the weather before I ended up with this one.
DeleteAnd I will never forget "How much wood could a woodchuck chuck, if a woodchuck could chuck wood"
ReplyDeleteI had a couple of stories to tell about that tongue twister, but I thought I was running a little long.
DeleteInteresting and informative! I think they are cute!
ReplyDeleteI think most people who see them every day, don't think of them as cute. But when you just look at their face, they are kind of cute.
DeleteOMG... they are SOOOO cute! I don't think we have groundhogs out here - we have prairie dogs instead. But the prairie dogs tend to live in distinct colonies, and I've never heard of them disturbing anyone's garden!
ReplyDeleteWhen we visited New Mexico a couple of years ago, I saw prairie dogs for the first time in the "wild". Before, I had only seen them in the zoo. When they pop their heads up, they are really cute too.
DeleteWe have neither prairie dogs nor woodchucks. Our yard critters are pretty much the squirrel, chipmunk, mole, shrew variety, with an occasional rabbit, raccoon, possum, or armadillo. We have a couple of coyotes who have decided they like the neighborhood also, which is kind of terrorizing for cats that go out at night.
ReplyDeleteWe don't have armadillos around here but we did have them when we lived in Texas. The joke was the only kind of armadillo you would see would be a dead one because supposedly when they were frightened the would jump straight up into the air instead of run away. A car would hit them every time because of this. And it's true that I saw several as road kill, but never one alive. (except at the zoo.)
DeleteWe had a woodchuck den in the Little Cove at my last apartment. I set up a barrier to keep people away from it by putting a crib side up like a fence and added plants in front of it then a bench and chair to either side. My granddaughter thought they were cute, even knowing not to get too close. She used to pick clover and other grasses and set next to his hole with a bowl of water. One day we watched him climb up and sit in the bird feeder to eat it then leap down. I never knew they could climb, just like a cat.
ReplyDeleteThe first animal I saw in my yard when I moved was a groundhog. A friend from the apartment when hearing this asked me to name it after him so the groundhog in my yard is Alan. :-)
I didn't realize that they can climb either until I read that recently. They don't look like climbers. I hope you and Alan form a good relationship and he leaves you garden alone.
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