Feb. 2 is Groundhog Day. On this day, if a groundhog sees its shadow, there will be six more weeks of winter, and if it doesn't, spring will be here in just a month and a half. You may call a groundhog a woodchuck, groundpig, whistlepig, land beaver, Canada marmot and many other names.
Do you know the answer to how much ground can a groundhog hog if a groundhog could hog ground? The simple answer is: A groundhog would hog all the ground he could hog if a groundhog could hog ground.
But how much ground is that? Groundhogs live solitary lives and defend small territories from other groundhogs. Each territory is less than an acre. They create tunnels that can be 20 to 50 feet long and have multiple entrances and some rooms that are below the frost line, so they can hibernate.
In 1988, Richard Thomas, a conservation officer in New York, calculated that the average groundhog could remove 700 pounds of dirt a day to create its burrow. That is a lot of hogging. It also may give us the answer to another question.
How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood? The simple answer is of course: A woodchuck would chuck all the wood he could if a woodchuck could chuck wood. Since the average groundhog can hog 700 pounds of dirt a day, it stands to reason that a woodchuck could chuck 700 pounds of wood a day, if a woodchuck should decide that he could chuck wood.
My question is, are woodchucks nursery rhyme heroes, movie stars or garden villains? Maybe they are all three. Woodchucks are native to the eastern half of North America and across Canada into Alaska. They are the largest members of the squirrel family and have relatives that live in the Rockies, such as the yellow-bellied marmot.
Woodchucks are large and they make huge den holes. They can excavate holes under buildings, causing concrete floors to crack. There is usually a lot of soil piled up near the main entrance, but the side escape entrances may not have any dirt around them, making them hazardous. The tunnels are usually near open fields, where the groundhogs eat grasses, weeds, wild and cultivated flowers, berries and tree bark. They will also eat grasshoppers and other large insects. Weighing 10 pounds and needing to store a lot of fat for the winter, they eat a lot of food and can eat all the vegetables in a garden.
Fencing may be the most effective way to keep them out of a vegetable garden, but the bottom must be buried. They are good climbers, so they might go over a fence they can get a grip on. Electric fencing and trapping may be needed.
They hibernate for three months in the south and up to six months in the north. During hibernation their body temperature drops from 99 degrees to 40, their heart rate drops from 100 to just 4 beats per minute and they take a breath just once in six minutes!
Because of these abilities, they are being used in medical research that may lead to benefits to people. Who wants to go on a diet of vegetables and insects that allows you to sleep for six months? What a great diet plan! They also are being used in research into the hepatitis B virus. Groundhogs can get hepatitis B virus-induced liver cancer, making them the best animal in which to study viral hepatitis in humans. So, maybe they aren't so bad after all.
Email questions to Jeff Rugg at info@greenerview.com. To find out more about Jeff Rugg and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.
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