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Today’s Blog Post
“How much wood would a Woodchuck chuck if a Woodchuck could chuck wood?”
Well I may be able to answer this age old question soon and in a rather interesting way. Yikes.
My wife came excitedly out to the driveway one morning lately where I was working and exclaimed, “We have a Groundhog in our backyard and he ducked into Larry and Linda’s yard under the fence! I missed the picture of him… he is so cute!”
In our area along the Parkway (about four blocks away) you can see many Groundhogs… or Woodchucks… or The Marmota monax. They are eating incessantly each afternoon in the sunlight. Fat and full each night when they retire.
Yesterday as I was preparing to cut more of our back tree down I plugged in my electrical cord for the saw. In doing so I stepped into part of the flower bed close to the little shed. The earth was soft and further out than I remembered it the other day… it was also lighter in colour and fresh. I looked down and then into the shrub… YIKES!
WE HAVE THAT CUTE LITTLE GUY LIVING UNDER OUR GRADEN SHED NOW! The Marmota monax has moved in.
Our next door neighbour is at his cottage for most of the summer – only coming home to collect some veggies from his HUGE Garden and check the house etc. This week he will get a new surprise with the fact that The Marmota monax… is now using his garden as his restaurant/buffet!
I am providing safe housing and my neighbour is providing the food!
Now they are cute… but they are a rodent that loves green stuff. If they would eat dandelions and weeds they would be welcome… but…. I am not sure!
No I do not have a good photo of him yet… these are only stock photos that others have shared.
Mostly herbivorous, groundhogs primarily eat wild grasses and other vegetation, and berries and agricultural crops when available. Groundhogs also eat grubs, grasshoppers, insects, snails and other small animals, but are not as omnivorous as many other sciuridae. Like squirrels they also have been observed sitting up eating nuts such as shagbark hickory but unlike squirrels do not bury them for future use.
And also states... of its burrow…
Groundhogs are excellent burrowers, using burrows for sleeping, rearing young, and hibernating. The average groundhog has been estimated to move approximately 1 m3 (35 cu ft), or 320 kg (710 lb), of dirt when digging a burrow. Though groundhogs are the most solitary of the marmots, several individuals may occupy the same burrow. Groundhog burrows usually have two to five entrances, providing groundhogs their primary means of escape from predators. Burrows are particularly large, with up to 14 metres (46 ft) of tunnels buried up to 1.5 metres (5 ft) underground, and can pose a serious threat to agricultural and residential development by damaging farm machinery and even undermining building foundations.
Hokey Mokey! I have one entrance to a tunnel that can be up to 46 feet in length with five entrances, even undermining building foundations!!!!
Maybe a live trap will work? Suddenly it isn’t CUTE anymore!
~ Murray Lincoln ~
http://www.murraylincoln.com/
Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groundhog
1 comment:
Murray---Don't bring him our our way!! We have too many critters to deal with already!
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