All About Groundhog Day

Woodchuck or Groundhog, Gathering Winter Feed, USA

Kenney, Brian
16 in. x 12 in.
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The lowly groundhog, often called a woodchuck, is the only mammal to have a day named in his honor.

The groundhog's day is February 2. Granted, it's not a federal holiday; nobody gets off work. But still, to have a day named after you is quite a feat.

On the second of February each year, much of North America observes Groundhog Day.

On that day, according to folklore, the woodchuck Marmota monax - sometimes called groundhog, or simply chuck, awakes from its long winter sleep and comes out of its den.

If it sees its shadow it will go back in, and we will have another six weeks of winter.

If it does not see its shadow it will remain awake and active, and we will have an early spring.

This popular old legend apparently came to North America with early settlers from Europe, where it is believed in some parts that bears or badgers behave in the same manner. Although most people recognize that the legend has no basis in fact, it provides a welcome mid-winter diversion, which is usually promoted by the news media.

Actually most woodchucks do not come out of hibernation until March, or even later in the north.

The average groundhog is 20 inches long and normally weighs from 12 to 15 pounds.

Groundhogs are covered with coarse grayish hairs (fur) tipped with brown or sometimes dull red. They have short ears, a short tail, short legs, and are surprisingly quick. Their jaws are exceptionally strong.

A groundhog's diet consists of lots of greens, fruits, and vegetables and very little water. Most of their liquids come from dewy leaves.

A groundhog can whistle when it is alarmed. Groundhogs also whistle in the spring when they begin courting.

Insects do not bother groundhogs and germs pretty much leave them alone. They are resistant to the plagues that periodically wipe out large numbers of wild animals. One reason for this is their cleanliness.

Groundhogs are one of the few animals that really hibernate. Hibernation is not just a deep sleep. It is actually a deep coma, where the body temperature drops to a few degrees above freezing, the heart barely beats, the blood scarcely flows, and breathing nearly stops.

Young Groundhogs are usually born in mid-April or May, and by July they are able to go out on their own. The size of the litter is 4 to 9. A baby groundhog is called a kit or a cub.

A groundhog's life span is normally 6 to 8 years.

It was a dark and stormy night .... ok, so it really wasn't, but don't all stories start that way? In March 2003, in the middle of the night, Rick bolted upright in bed and said "Spanish Joe is telling me that there is something wrong". Without any further hesitation, Rick jumped into his clothes and into the truck and he quickly departed, Spanish Joe in tow.

They both returned a couple of hours later with a very tiny baby groundhog, who barely fit in our hand. Apparently, Spanish Joe had psychically informed Rick that there was an orphaned baby groundhog nearby and he needed to be rescued, pronto. The rescue site was next to a bridge in a high traffic area, and Spanish Joe found out that the groundhog's family had been unfortunate victims of that traffic. Now sometimes other groundhogs families in the area will take in an orphaned groundhog, but this was sadly not the case here. This adorable little groundhog was so young, we estimated only a couple of weeks old, that he had no fear of humans, plus I think Spanish Joe was a very calming influence.

A make-shift home for the baby groundhog was constructed. We used a new snowmobile boot liner, with the toe cut off, as his new burrow and Marvin took to it immediately as it was nice and warm and dark. When Marvin smelled the fresh dirt on any grasses we put in, he would go nuts and would start trying to dig and would continually nuzzle the dirt.

He was too young to feed vegetation to, so Rick asked Joe what to do. Joe suggested a natural baby formula mixed with Soya milk and using an eye dropper for a delivery system made feeding trouble-free. The baby groundhog attacked the eyedropper like a starving Siberian timber wolf when he was first fed, and he earned his nick name of "Starvin Marvin" at that time.

Marvin was very smart and learned quickly that when Rick made a certain sound with his lips to call him, that feeding time was at hand and Marvin would go ballistic. He started to gain weight like crazy and was gradually weaned off the special formula mixture. His new diet now included nice fresh grasses, clover, clover flowers and dandelions; with shaved carrots and lettuce for those in-between snacks.

After awhile it was time for Marvin to be returned to the wild. He was taken to a very remote and safe area, a secret spot where Rick knew other groundhogs were living. He had gained so much weight Rick had a lot of trouble getting him out of the boot liner, which we had already been adjusted once to accommodate his growth. He was finally free in the wild, and as he had been handled very little, he would adjust to the wild quite easily.



Rick tried to give him one final pat good-bye and Marvin promptly tried to bite him. I guess Marvin never heard of the saying "Don't bite the hand that feeds you!

The basic story here is true and we did rescue this little baby groundhog. We do drop by his new home from time to time and we are happy to report he is quite happy.