Sanguine Tenacious Tidings

Whistle Pigs Make it Big.{Rated E}

For Andre the Blog Monkey's Banana Bar / February 2023

Prompt: P3. Groundhog Day and groundhogs in general (not the movie)

Groundhogs, whistle pigs, and wood chucks are the same thing. "How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?" (One of the things my dad taught me to say when I was a child.) I didn't know there was a movie.

The name whistle pig comes for the sound this animal makes by drawing air through his front teeth when there is danger. Woodchucks have short muscular legs. Their front incisors wear down by chewing. They are one of the animals that have incisors that continue to grow making chewing a necessary routine. They feed in the morning and early evening. The rest of the day they sleep or rest in the sun.

They are a true hibernating animal. Their heart rate goes from a normal 100 beats per minute to 4 beats per minute during hibernation. The size of an adult keeps most predators away. The young are not so lucky.

Woodchucks mate early in spring. Offspring can be 6 and above to a litter. They are raised by the female. Pennsylvania Game Commission says it is possible for more than one litter to be born in a season. This is one of the reasons there is no hunting limit on woodchucks in Pennsylvania. The only restrictions are you cannot hunt them on Sundays and during rifle deer season.

Woodchucks dig holes to build dens. They can have tunnels underground and a front and back door. Often, they dig holes under buildings, which gives them shelter in winter. They prefer fields, gardens, or lawns as well as under buildings to dig their dens.

Groundhog Day has become an American tradition. It was started in Pennsylvania by German farmer settlers in Pennsylvania. They celebrated Candlemas. In Germany they used badgers as their go to for information about the weather. In Pennsylvania there were no badgers, so they started this story; when the Groundhog sees its shadow on Candlemas there would be six more weeks of winter.

The groundhog used presently has a special day in March for his predictions. He has a special person as his keeper in Philadelphia. The groundhog's name is Punxsutawney Phil.

There is another groundhog in Massachusetts. Massachusetts made a law to make Ms. G their own special state groundhog. Ms. G lives at the Druman Farm Wildlife Sancturary in Lincoln. Massachusetts.

I can tell you from experience Phil from Philidelphia is not always right with its predictions.

REFERENCES:
WWW.WIKIPEDIA.COM
WWW.MASSAUDUBON.ORG

All Word Count by WDC:429