“Shoulder up your gun and whistle up your dog, shoulder up your gun and whistle up your dog, we’re off to the woods to catch a groundhog, Ol’ groundhog! (Traditional American Folk Song)
I’m betting that the Groundhog is one of those animals you don’t think about much. When you do consider this hefty rodent you begin to realize he is pretty well entrenched in our history and culture. Hey, I didn’t make that quote up, the one up there from the old folk song. (I like the Doc Watson version). Not many critters have a national day named after them, and other than the wooly worm, we don’t look to any others to predict the weather.
GROUNDHOG 101 The American Woodchuck, also known as Groundhog and Whistle Pig, is a large rodent and is found over most of the eastern and central United States and into Canada. For those of you keeping track of these things, his Latin name is Marmota monax. He belongs to the family Sciuridae, and is in a group of large ground squirrels known as marmots. I am told he is found as far north as Alaska, although how he does much digging up there, I don’t know.
Despite a chunky appearance, the groundhog is a good swimmer and an excellent tree climber, often escaping predators in this way. They have large, powerful front incisors and they know how to use them. The dog that tangles with Mr. Groundhog better be ready for a fight.
When alarmed, they will often give a high pitched whistle as an alert call to other groundhogs, hence the name “whistle pig”.Groundhogs may be found in forested areas but are usually seenaround open fields. They are ferocious diggers and often have at least two burrows, it is this burrowing, and a taste for garden crops, that gets them in trouble with us humans.
I have known many farmers and cattlemen over the years that really detest groundhogs. Probably more for their destructive burrowing than for what they eat in the way of crops. Some studies suggest that a groundhog may move over two tons of dirt in digging a single burrow. When you dig this many holes around barns and outbuildings, hay meadows, farm machinery and livestock, you can see how most farmers are no fan of the groundhog.
Once upon a time I traveled with some pretty fast company in the long range varmint shooting world. These guys shot .220 Swifts, .22-250’s, .243’s and the odd .25/06. They could shoot a gnat’s left wing off at 300 yards and they shot groundhogs at much longer ranges than that. The farmers that we visited loved to see us coming because the groundhog population was always diminished when we left.
Now before anyone starts to send a barrage of mail about how could you think of shooting a cute little furry animal, you will just have to talk to some of the farmers that have to deal with Mr. Groundhog, I guarantee they think of him as nothing but a destructive pest. I don’t really have anything against the groundhog, I know that at least once a year he is a celebrity in places like Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, and Groundhog Day is my favorite Bill Murray movie. You just have to realize he can sometimes be a destructive pest and must be controlled.
Since we are talking about hunting the groundhog, let’s talk about something many of you have never heard of, that is having the groundhog home for dinner, literally. What? Larry, are you kidding us? Eat a groundhog? That is right, a lot of your ancestors did this and a lot of people still do. Think about it, he is almost a strict vegetarian; he eats mainly plants, a lot of grasses like clover and other rabbit food. Almost no one questions dining on rabbit; lots of us relish fried squirrel and gravy, so really what is the big difference? A young groundhog can be very good; don’t knock it till you’ve tried it.
Here is another one for you, in the old days people routinely kept the hide of the groundhog, tanned it, and used the leather to make shoestrings! They didn’t hunt groundhogs with long range varmint rifles in the time I am talking about. Often they had a cur dog and maybe a shovel or mattock, digging the groundhog out of his burrow was sometimes an all-day affair. Remember this was in a simpler time; people weren’t concerned about standing around all day looking at their smart phones. It was more about putting meat on the table.
OK, there is your groundhog 101 lesson for today. Consider this complex little varmint sometime, agricultural pest, weather prognosticator, game animal we can sharpen our marksman’s eye on for bigger game, and icon in American folklore. Not bad for a groundhog.
“Well I dug down, but I didn’t dig deep, I dug down but I didn’t dig deep, there lay a whistle pig fast asleep, Ol’ groundhog!
Larryocase3@gmail.com