Groundhogs getting closer to a long sleepover
PHOTOS BY GARRY BRANDENBURG — Groundhogs, alias woodchucks, (or scientifically, Marmota monax), are busy feeding to put as much body fat on as possible before hibernation. Groundhogs do not store food to consume during the winter. Instead they eat profusely to put fat stores into their bodies, which sustains them until Spring wake up time. Today's images were captured at Sand Lake earlier this week. This big rodent was munching on grasses, clovers and dandelions. A 400 mm lens is allowed for close up work without spooking the animal. My secret method, which is not so secret, was to remain in my vehicle and snap images from an open window. Somewhere under the broken concrete and rocked shore line of Sand Lake was the entrance to this animal's burrow. The burrow system ends with a sleeping chamber below frost line, cold, but sufficiently just warm enough to allow this rodent to safely sleep all winter long.
This week I will explore with you several natural history moments. All of these daily footnotes of time and place are just observations of the natural world.
They are fun things to explore, and in some cases just a convenient opportunity to be at the right place at the right time to see something very interesting. Mother Nature never disappoints.
Being in the right place at the right time fits the category for observing and photographing a groundhog. I could not have planned my encounter with this big rodent if I tried. So I made the best of the event, and with a long lens, recorded images of this unique mammal that many people never see.
What people may see is the destructive work of groundhogs burrowing under structures, perhaps compromising building foundations, and leaving immense mounds of excavated soil where people do not want to deal with the mess. Gardens are another favorite spot for night time raids by groundhogs as they plunder garden greens to eat.
There is no question that groundhogs can become a nuisance of high order. In rural agricultural areas, groundhogs like open grass meadows, forest edges and rocky fence rows if those items exist. There are private nuisance wildlife control companies, that charge for their services, who specialize in varmint control or removal.
One such company locally is Backwater Wildlife Solutions. Contact them at 641-990-5790 to attempt to deal with problem groundhogs.
Groundhogs are classified by taxonomists in a tiered scientific system. It starts with the Kingdom called Animalia, then the Phylum titled Cordata and Class Mammalia.
The Order is next, Rodentia, followed by Family Sciuridae. Its genus name is Marmota, and its species name is monax. The naturalist Carl Linnaeus, 1758, developed the Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species system to help organize creatures of all shapes and sizes. The system is extremely helpful to understand and show similarities and differences for all living creatures.
Our local lowland groundhogs have cousins that live in high altitude places within mountain ranges. You may have heard of Yellow-bellied marmots and Hoary marmots, both of which are found exclusively in mountain environments. Marmots, whether living in lowland sites or mountain high altitude rock strewn talus slopes, are just very big squirrels, specialized to their unique way of living.
Groundhog bodies can be about 16 to 20 inches long. A tail is about six inches. Weights vary between five and twelve pounds, depending upon the time of the year.
This mammal has strong muscular forelimbs with long and thick toe nail claws. They excel at digging. Burrows can be extensive systems of tunnels with several shorter side galleries. Excavations by biologist W. J. Schoonmaker of 11 groundhog burrows found an average tunnel system to be 24 feet long, containing six cubic feet of soil, that on average weighed 384 pounds. Each burrow can have two to five entrances/exits.
A true hibernator, their method to outlast a winter is to sleep through the coldest season of the year. The sleeping chamber is below the frost line. Late October is when their sleep may begin and will end late March or early April. Body temperatures of groundhogs drop to as low as 35 degrees Fahrenheit. Its heart rate may decrease to four to 10 beats per minute. Breathing rates slow to one breath every six minutes.
By springtime, over one-half of their body weight will be consumed to keep the sleeping animal alive. On average, a wild groundhog can live to be six years old, while just two to three years is more of an average.
The fun part about groundhogs, on or about Feb. 2 each year, is the so-called end of winter prediction. Will this mammal wake up, exit its burrow, see its shadow, and then return to its den bedroom to sleep for six more weeks? Feb. 2 just happens to be half way through the winter season, and people are anxious to be ‘over the hump’ of a long cold winter.
From a groundhog’s point of view, allowing it to sleep is a better choice. People need to find a good book to read, rather than playing games with a sleeping rodent.
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Bison are large mammals of the Bovine family, well suited to survive the prairie lands of North America. I watched an interesting show on public television this past week. Perhaps you also watched this documentary that totaled four hours over two consecutive evenings.
Ken Burns was the producer. His illustrations and interviews, plus historical photographs detailing the history of and the decline of the American Bison, was very good. What we know now and what we did not know then marked both a sad history for the bison and how it impacted peoples, native Americans and the settlers of the American West.
I have read extensive accounts of the present day modern bison, or American buffalo, and its many ancient larger bodied ancestors who crossed the Bering Sea land bridge, when huge glacial systems had lowered ocean water levels sufficiently to allow a land bridge to exist between Siberia and Alaska. Various bison predecessors lived during glacial times who were able to survive extreme cold climatic conditions as they penetrated into North America. Summer grasslands across Canada and America sustained many grassland species in addition to bison. Most of those ancient forms became extinct.
Their bones and skulls with huge horn cores have been found by archaeologists periodically. This has allowed natural history museums to gain an understanding of past geologic time spans and various bison species that occupied these environments. The modern bison we know of today is a survivor.
Bison were once upon a time on a road toward extinction by the hand of man. However, there was a strong turn around of events in America’s growth and political leadership of the time, to begin long term conservation programs of habitat and regulations against unregulated hunting. President Theodore Roosevelt, George Bird Grinnell, and many others recognized that market hunting during those early times would have to give way to more pragmatic and scientifically based wildlife solutions.
In the nick of time, the American Bison, much reduced in numbers, but still hanging on in unique settings, has now regrown in select populations such as Yellowstone National Park, Custer State Park in South Dakota, and on farms and ranches all over the country.
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Iowa River flow levels increased by about five inches due to rainfall events of Oct. 10-13. A check on data from the Corps of Engineers website shows that low flows of early October had gage readings of 9.52′.
That increased to 9.95′ on Oct. 12, a difference of only 0.43′– which is on the order of five inches. The river has settled back a bit since then. Sandbars are still above water in many locations, complete with green vegetation that took root on those wet sandy soil substrates. Dry soils everywhere within the watershed soaked up most of the rainwater that did fall. Every bit helps build soil column moisture content.
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Trout will be stocked at Sand Lake again this fall by Iowa DNR fisheries bureau staffers. The date scheduled will be Nov. 3 between 12:30 and 1:30 p.m. Bringing moderate sized hatchery-grown trout to local areas is part of the Community Fishing Trout Program.
Many urban areas have former sand/gravel pits turned into conservation areas. The water makes for good trout stocking as the water cools to appropriate levels. Anglers need a fishing license and must also pay the trout fee in order to fish and/or to possess trout.
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Garry Brandenburg is the retired director of the Marshall County Conservation Board. He is a graduate of Iowa State University with a BS degree in Fish & Wildlife Biology.
Contact him at:
P.O. Box 96
Albion, IA 50005
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- PHOTOS BY GARRY BRANDENBURG — Groundhogs, alias woodchucks, (or scientifically, Marmota monax), are busy feeding to put as much body fat on as possible before hibernation. Groundhogs do not store food to consume during the winter. Instead they eat profusely to put fat stores into their bodies, which sustains them until Spring wake up time. Today’s images were captured at Sand Lake earlier this week. This big rodent was munching on grasses, clovers and dandelions. A 400 mm lens is allowed for close up work without spooking the animal. My secret method, which is not so secret, was to remain in my vehicle and snap images from an open window. Somewhere under the broken concrete and rocked shore line of Sand Lake was the entrance to this animal’s burrow. The burrow system ends with a sleeping chamber below frost line, cold, but sufficiently just warm enough to allow this rodent to safely sleep all winter long.
Outdoors Today
Seeing red
Wildlife comes in all shapes and sizes
Bluebirds and Bluebells = Spring
Northern Pike eggs now in Spirit Lake hatchery
Robins adapt to March’s variable weather
