The whistlepig

February is the month North America celebrates Groundhog Day, so I thought I would write about groundhogs for this week’s article. When I lived in the Hudson Valley, I use to see a lot of them. My brother and I use to have acres of old pasture land to run and play in, and I can remember a few times we cussed those groundhogs after we fell because our feet would slip into a groundhog hole. It was especially bad if we were running fast, or if we were playing tag and got tagged due to a groundhog hole! On the positive side, we also spent some enjoyable days watching those interesting animals with our binoculars. The groundhog is also called a woodchuck or a whistlepig.  The name whistlepig came about because when danger approaches, the groundhog, aka whistlepig, will stand on its hind legs and make a loud whistling noise uttering a warning to fellow groundhogs who may be nearby. The name woodchuck has nothing to do with wood or chucking. The name is said to stem from an Algonquin name for the animal (possibly the Narragansett), which is, wuchak.  The relationship between the two words led to the tongue twister: “How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?”

Groundhogs are one of 14 species of marmots belonging to the rodent family. They are related to squirrels and are the largest member of the squirrel family. While they are usually seen on the ground, they are actually capable of climbing trees, which they will do when they encounter danger. They also are good swimmers. Groundhogs have two coats of fur. One coat is a dense grey undercoat and the other is a longer coat of banded guard hairs. This gives the groundhog its distinctive “frosted” appearance. The groundhog gorges himself all summer to prepare himself for the long foodless winter he will spend in his underground burrow. They are one of the true hibernators. Groundhogs, using their very long, curved sharp front claws, burrow beneath the ground where they create a huge tunnel network. The groundhog moves approximately 700 pounds of dirt when making its burrow. This network tunnel is approximately 25 to 45 feet long and five feet deep. The tunnels have different chambers. There is a chamber for food and a chamber for hibernating and sleeping and possibly a few others. They use their tunnels to mate, to sleep, to raise their young, and to hide. The tunnel always has at least two openings. One opening is for casual access, and there is at least another opening to be used to escape if the occasion arises.  Although the groundhog is the most solitary of the marmot family, more than two dozen or more groundhogs can sometimes share the same burrow. This is not true during mating season, nor is it true when the young are being raised.

During hibernation, which begins in the fall, the groundhog draws sustenance from its body fat. The groundhog’s heart rate plunges, and his body temperature is not much warmer than the temperature inside his burrow.  In the spring, in March or April, the groundhogs emerge from their dens. They emerge with enough body fat to keep them alive until warmer weather brings them abundant plant supplies. The females will have four to six young ones with her when she leaves the burrow. They will stay with her and depend on her for at least several months. They will then leave her, find a territory, and make their own burrows. There are only one or two groundhog burrows per acre, which keeps the number of groundhogs in one area relatively low.  The groundhog’s hibernation gave rise to the popular Ground Hog Day that is celebrated in North America.

Groundhog Day is held on the second day of February every year. If the groundhog sees his shadow, we are in for six more weeks of cold winter weather.

German immigrants, known as the Pennsylvania Dutch, brought the tradition to America in the 18th century. They first used the badger as their winter-spring barometer. They later reassigned the job to the groundhog when they brought their Candelmas traditions to the United States and Canada. Candelmas commemorates the ritual purification of the Virgin Mary, which is done 30 days after the birth of Jesus. Candelmas occurs half way between the first day of winter and the first day of spring. Traditionally, the Germans believed that if the Candelmas was sunny, then the remaining six weeks of winter would be cold and stormy. If it was cloudy, rained, or snowed on Candelmas, then the rest of the winter would be mild. Hence if the animal sees its shadow it must be sunny, which predicts six more weeks of wintry weather. This is their little rhyme: “If Candelmas be fair and bright, Winter has another fight. If Candelmas brings clouds and rain, Winter will not come again.” Other Europeans have used other animals that hibernate such as the bear and the hedgehog. When they emerged from their dens, they announced the arrival of spring. The most famous groundhog is Punxsutawney Phil who lives in a burrow in the Groundhog Zoo at the library in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. On Groundhog Day, Phil is taken to Gobblers Knob. The official handler holds Phil so he can look for his shadow. NOTE: It was not a sunny day this year, but the officials said Phil saw his shadow predicting six more weeks of winter weather. I THINK NOT! Even the TV news announcer covering this year’s event said he did not see a shadow either, and he commented that maybe the officials read the almanac and didn’t want to go against it - who knows?

The groundhog prefers areas where woodland meets open spaces like those near fields, roads, and streams.  They eat all kinds of plants, fruits, grass, clover, and tree bark.  They are not much appreciated by gardeners. It is my guess the groundhog feels the same way about gardeners.  The groundhog’s scientific name is Marmota monax.  The groundhog is the largest ground squirrel in its geographical range. The groundhog can measure 17 to 26 inches long (including its tail), and they can weigh from four to fourteen pounds.  They have a relatively short life span living only two to three years in the wild with a few reaching the ripe old age of six. Groundhogs mostly eat wild grasses and other plants, and berries and even farm crops when they are available.  Groundhogs also eat grubs that are a pest to man and pests to many important plants. They will also eat grasshoppers, insects, snails, and other small animals.  Occasionally they will establish themselves on farmlands where they can damage crops. There is a simple method to curtail this. All one has to do is build a buried fence around their crops. As with all of the Creator’s creatures, the groundhog was put here and has its instructions and purpose.

Like all the other beings on Mother Earth, scientists do not know yet exactly what each being’s role is nor do they know all about their place or importance in the chain, and all too often what these roles were and what they were needed for is learned too late. Learned the hard way. Groundhogs, we know, are important because many other animals, such as the fox, will use their abandoned burrows to raise their own young.  Each of those animals has their important role, too. The groundhog provides food for other valuable animals who, for one thing, help to keep the rat and rodent population under control. Small, young groundhogs are often food for rodent eating snakes who can easily enter their burrows.  The main diet of many snakes is mice and rats. When one animal is slaughtered and chased from its territory or becomes missing from the chain, disaster will surely follow. I know I for one wish we had more of those animals here to kill some of the huge rats I have seen not too far from my own home, and the damage mice have done to my house has cost me a pretty penny more than once. The groundhog is food for wolves, coyotes, bobcats, bears, large hawks, and owls. Many of those animals mentioned love to kill and eat rats, too. 

Since the groundhog only has two mounds for his burrow, there really isn’t too much harm done by them to your lawns. Poisoning them can lead to killing other animals you should not want to harm. Trapping them with steel traps or shooting them only leaves the territory open for another to take over, and if you want to know what a trap feels like, try slamming closed a car door on your hand. If you must trap use a Havana humane trap, but remember, too, if you trap a female she probably has babies somewhere that need to be cared for, so set her free.  Occasionally a horse or cow steps into their entrance holes, resulting in injuries. If you have horses or cows, inspect your pastures and place a protective barrier around the burrow’s openings.  Ecologically, the groundhog is a part of the terrestrial food chain; they eat vegetation and small invertebrates that are pests to us and other living things. In the field of research on the deadly Hepatitis B virus, groundhogs have proven to be extremely important. Groundhogs are good genetic models for studying the human hepatitis B virus. Scientists in China have characterized the marmot alpha-interferon gene, encoding an interferon type used in the treatment of hepatitis in humans. This makes the groundhog a hero. They are a help to humanity. As the teachings from our elders will tell us, there is a living thing on Mother Earth to cure every illness. We must keep this in mind and stop needless slaughter. The lives we save may just be our own or our children’s.

In North America, groundhogs also provide a unique cultural role as the focus of Groundhog Day, which is a celebrated folk tradition, a prophecy of spring. It is important for us to remember our original instructions. We must all learn to respect and to live in balance with all of the Creator’s creations.