Can groundhogs actually predict extra winter or an early spring? Not likely, however that doesn’t cease the celebration of an animal that in any other case doesn’t get a whole lot of love.
DEAR JOAN: I grew up in Contra Costa County and as immediately is Groundhog Day, I assumed it was a great time to ask what precisely a groundhog is.
Do we've any within the Bay Space? I’m fairly certain they will’t predict the climate, so how did that legend come to be?
J.C., Walnut Creek
DEAR J.: Groundhogs can’t predict the climate? Properly, for Pete’s sake, don’t inform Punxsutawney Phil. He and his variety have been working that con for hundreds of years.
The groundhog (Marmota monax) is a rodent and belongs to the household of huge floor squirrels referred to as marmots. Whereas we've plenty of native floor squirrels, and a few marmots excessive within the Sierra, we do not need groundhogs, which are also referred to as woodchucks or, my favourite, whistlepigs.
The groundhogs’ territory is primarily the Jap United States, throughout Canada and into Alaska. Whereas the groundhogs’ cousins dwell within the mountains, the woodchucks are within the lowlands, the place their tunnels assist keep wholesome soil within the woodlands and plains.
Groundhogs are thought-about extraordinarily clever and type advanced social networks with out the help of Fb, Instagram or Twitter. They comprehend social behaviors, type relationships with their offspring, talk by physique language and whistling, and are identified to work collectively with regards to burrowing.
Nonetheless, they aren't well-loved on the whole. An 1883 report by the New Hampshire Legislative Woodchuck Committee left little doubt in regards to the regard wherein groundhogs have been held.
“Contemporaneous with the ark, the woodchuck has not made any materials progress in social science, and it's now too late to reform the wayward sinner,” the report learn.
It went on to complain in regards to the size of the groundhog’s life span (too lengthy for the committee members) and the nuisances the animal created.
“It burrows beneath the soil after which chuckles to see a mowing machine, man and all, hunch into one in every of these holes and disappear.”
It will appear that the groundhog solely will get optimistic consideration on Feb. 2, Groundhog Day. In accordance with a superstition of the Pennsylvania Dutch, borrowing from an outdated German superstition involving a badger as a substitute of a groundhog, if the woodchuck emerges on this present day and sees his shadow, he'll retreat again into his den and the world can have six extra weeks of winter climate. Failure to see the shadow, a sign the skies are overcast, means an early spring.
This appears backwards to me, however I’m not Pennsylvania Dutch or superstitious, knock wooden. The legend has some roots in actuality, nonetheless. The groundhog — and the badger — is one of some animals that really hibernates, packing on weight in the summertime and fall after which sleeping by the winter.
When its shops of physique fats begin to wane, normally in early February, the groundhog emerges from hibernation and goes on the lookout for meals. An early spring, or any signal of spring in any respect, is nice information for hungry groundhogs. If they will’t discover ample meals, they retreat again to their dens and hit the snooze button till nature catches up with their urge for food.
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Use this way to submit questions. Images ought to be mailed individually to jmorris@bayareanewsgroup.com.