Happy Whistle Pig Day!
Although they don't look very pig-like, whistle pig is just another name
for groundhog. In fact, whistle pigs,
groundhogs, woodchucks, and land-beavers are the same animal. They are part of the marmot genus and are rodents
in the squirrel family. A post about Groundhog
Day has already appeared in the Animal Science blog so I thought I'd write
about the animals themselves.
Groundhog Facts
- Weight ranges from 4-31 pounds and length ranges
from 16-30 inches
- Lifespan is up to six years; Punxsutawney Phil
could live as many as 14 years in captivity
- Predators include wolves, coyotes , foxes,
bobcats, bears, hawks, snakes, and dogs
- Diet includes grass, berries, and crops from
your garden (and pancakes)
- They don't drink water but rather are hydrated by
eating leafy plants
- They do not store food for the winter; instead
they hibernate after gorging on food all summer
- The name whistle pig comes from the high-pitched
sound used to alert the community to danger
- Groundhogs can swim, if necessary, to escape a
predator
Destructive Behavior
Groundhogs burrow and herein lies the problem that most
humans have with these animals. Burrows
usually consist of about 45 feet of tunnels connected by five entrances. These holes and tunnels can cause damage to
machinery, other animals, or building foundations. Growing up I feared that they'd dig holes in
my horses' pasture.
Digging up History
The digging these rodents do is not all bad; their tunnels
helped reveal the Ufferman Site in Ohio, inhabited by Native Americans during
the Woodland period. The groundhogs
turned up bones, pottery, and stone tools.
With a natural habitat extending from Alaska to Georgia,
it's likely that groundhogs live near you.
What do you call them? Even if
they don't live where you do, you can always ponder the age-old question:
How
much wood would a woodchuck chuck
if
a woodchuck could chuck wood?
A
woodchuck would chuck all the wood he could
if
a woodchuck could chuck wood!
Resources: National
Geographic; NWF;
Wikipedia
| 
Re: Whistle Pigs
