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| [Note Guidelines] Photographer's Note |
While walking around Highland Park early in the morning before the Lilac Festival got started, I noticed a groundhog sticking his head out his burrow to see if anyone was around. His life was about to be disrupted by thousands of festival goers. I got closer and waited for him to stick his head out again and got this shot.
According to Wikipedia: The groundhog (Marmota monax), also known as the woodchuck or whistlepig, is a rodent of the family Sciuridae, belonging to the group of large ground squirrels known as marmots. He is a lowland creature. It is widely distributed in North America and common in the northeastern and central United States. In the west it is found only in Alaska, Alberta, British Columbia and northern Washington.
Anatomy and behavior
The groundhog is the largest sciurid in its geographical range, typically measuring 40 to 65 cm (17 to 26 in) long (including a 15 cm tail) and weighing 2 to 4 kg (4.5 to 9 pounds). Groundhogs are covered with two coats of fur: a dense grey undercoat and a longer coat of banded guard hairs that gives the groundhog its distinctive "frosted" appearance. Their diet consists of grasses, clover, Plantago, garden vegetables, leaves, twigs, apples, berries, and dandelion. They are not as omnivorous as many other sciurids, but will also eat grubs, grasshoppers, bugs, snails and other small animals.
A nearly-motionless individual, alert to danger, will whistle when alarmed to warn other groundhogs. Groundhogs are excellent burrowers, using burrows for sleeping, rearing young, and hibernating. Groundhog burrows generally have between two and five entrances, providing groundhogs their primary means of escape from predators. Burrows are particularly large, with up to 45 feet of tunnels buried up to 5 feet underground.
Outside their burrow, individuals are alert when not actively feeding. It is common to see one or more nearly-motionless individuals standing erect on their hind feet watching for danger. When alarmed, they use a high-pitched whistle to warn the rest of the colony.
Popular culture
In the United States and Canada, there is a Groundhog Day celebration that has given the groundhog some added recognition and popularity.
I cropped the photo, increased the saturation and sharpened, added a frame from PhotoFiltre and my signature. |
geterdone, ben-u-ron, Marylou has marked this note useful
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