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Dear reader, I welcome you to read this extraordinary story of the life of the largest member of the squirrel family (Sciuridae) related to other marmots in the western United States and well known for their huge appetite and incomparable digging skills: the groundhog, woodchuck or whistle-pig. Daily life is no small feat. In this story, you will be immersed in the perspective of a groundhog, where you (the reader) will become the groundhog. March is the time to emerge from your cozy home you call your burrow, but we will start from very beginning – birth. What will you eat? Who will you know? Where will you build your burrow? Perhaps, you will choose a place like Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge where a resident groundhog is an occasional visitor at the birdfeeders.
Follow along for your underground adventure!
Chapter 1: Newborn
It is a beautiful May day, bursting at the seams for life. The migratory birds are returning, singing songs alerted by the rising sun. Dandelions are blossoming revealing their vibrant yellow color. Oh, but what is that behind the tree? A burrow opening the size of a cantaloupe disturbs the landscape. Although there is not a peep at the surface, a mother groundhog is giving birth to her six pups in the tunnels beneath, including you!
On your first day you are pink, hairless and completely senseless. You rely on your mother entirely for your survival. You can’t tell left from right, up from down or friend from foe. For six weeks, you and your siblings all nurse milk from your mom, slowly gaining your senses.
While developing your senses, you start exploring the burrow your mother so powerfully dug for you and your siblings. With the tunnel being 45 feet long, there is much to see. You turn a corner and see a cozy room for sleep and hibernation. The other corner is the nursery where you were born. Another room shows a supply of food where green plants are piled up for feasting! Mom is slowly starting to feed you grass as you wean off her milk. As you explore down the tunnel, you smell something foul. A room for waste! Pee-ew! As quickly as you can, you crawl away.
After six weeks, the big adventure begins. You crawl out of your burrow, and you’re introduced to the world! The sun is bright to your new eyes. All of your senses explode with information. Around you, trees the size of giants tower over you. The ground is soft, covered in pine needles and dirt. The woodlands seem magical. So many noises! Birds squawk, screech and swoop down to get a look at you. You think, “maybe they want to be friends!”
Mom guides you around the forest edge showing you green vegetation, bark, buds, twigs and seeds to fill your stomach. Every day you learn a little bit more about the most important thing in your life: foraging.
Chapter 2: Young Groundhog
As you get older, the more annoying your siblings get. All the chasing and fighting to establish dominance is catching up to you. At three months, you decide it’s time to leave the burrow for good.
The world seems bright with possibilities. You feel free as you start the search to find a good place to build your own burrow – away from all the drama at home. As you wander, you come across an open field full of grasses and wildflowers. Across the field, there is large structure you’ve never come across before. It’s brown and wider than anything you’ve ever seen! You wonder what sort of creature lives there. As you journey through the prairie, the aroma of fresh edible plants draws you in. You sniff, you bite, you... “Yum!” The prairie is a wonderland. You never want to leave. What a great place to build a home!
You choose a spot on the edge of the forest close to the delicious plants before you start to dig. One paw after another until you are five feet deep, then you start to dig across. It takes weeks before your burrow is as big as moms.
As summer starts to come to an end, you eat, eat and eat some more! The clover, alfalfa and dandelions constantly fill your nostrils with their fresh, flowery scent, as well as your stomach. The days keep getting shorter which means it’s time to bulk up and get ready to hibernate and escape the harsh weather. Every day is a chance to munch on the delicious prairie plant platter laid before you.
One fall day, you leave the burrow and realize that all the plants near your burrow have turned brown! You walk towards the forest when you hear a ruffle of leaves in the distance. Carefully, you continue on until you see a red, furry animal three times the size of you with a big bushy tail peering behind a tree. You bolt as you hear it running towards you. Closer and closer. You dive into your burrow as it starts to pounce, barely escaping. Relief rushes through you from this close encounter.
Chapter 3: Adult
At six months, you are fully grown, weighing 15 pounds and 20 inches long. With all the binge-eating you have done as one of the few true hibernators, you are ready. You crawl into a cozy room you’ve built and get ready to snooze ‘til spring.
When March arrives, you wake and start the year ready for what’s to come. You have met other groundhog neighbors nearby and have developed a system for when there are foxes, dogs, coyotes, birds of prey and anything else that could be dangerous. You whistle through your teeth if you see something scary, warning those around you.
You consider yourself an expert of day-to-day life and settle down for another round of hibernation. When you wake, male groundhogs check out your territory to see if you might be a potential match. Soon enough, you have five little pups of your own to teach the groundhog lifestyle.
You live a long, full life of five years, full of foraging, burrowing and raising your young.
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