Maps, Directions, and Place Reviews
Intrusive ferret
Why is there a picture of a blackfooted ferret on this page? (Or have I just gone 'round the bend?) Stargoat 14:24, 28 Jun 2004 (UTC)
Natural Ways To Get Rid Of Groundhogs Video
Woodchuck vs. groundhog
Why does the article consistently use Woodchuck when the title is Groundhog? If Woodchuck is the more popular name for the animal, then why isn't that the name used for the title? pomegranate 21:32, Feb 2, 2005 (UTC)
More photos
Would some Wikipedians of the area try to get some photo shots? David.Monniaux 11:30, 29 October 2005 (UTC)
The two current pictures are good (lying down and sitting/standing up on hind end) but it would be good to have an additional picture of walking/running. 69.87.200.242 18:59, 7 October 2006 (UTC)
What about "land beaver"? Shouldn't that be added as an a.k.a.?Periksson28 (talk) 20:02, 18 July 2009 (UTC)
External links dead
The External links are dead.76.29.224.76 (talk) 01:12, 1 February 2012 (UTC)
Dog Picture
Considering the dog is tied up in the picture. Shouldn't it says the dog is receiving the unexpected visit from the groundhog and not the other way around?
The picture is gone now, which is probably good. My dog "visited" a woodchuck in the local cemetery today...which ended up with one more corpse in the graveyard.
Freeways and interchanges
What is this nonsense about freeways and interchanges? It sounds like it was written by someone [young] who happened to see a woodchuck alongside the road once. Until someone can demonstrate that there's some relevance to freeways in the distribution of woodchucks, I'm taking it out of the article. Tomertalk 03:46, 3 February 2006 (UTC)
I'm from Ottawa, and I've seen *a lot* of groundhogs along some of the big roads. My guess is that this partly because is there's a lot of grass, and not many other animals bug them. But I don't know what you'd be able to cite.
Squeaver
On the basis of this google search, I'm removing the "or squeaver" business from the article. It appears to be an idioletic neologism, and without looking, I'm guessing was added by the person with the golden retriever... Tomertalk 04:00, 3 February 2006 (UTC)
Tongue twister
The way I always had people relate the second part of that quoted tongue twister was: 'A woodchuck would chuck all the wood he could chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood.' Is this just differing regional variations or what?
That's better than the one in the article, which has very clumsy timing: A woodchuck would chuck all the wood that a woodchuck could if a woodchuck could chuck wood. That's awful.
And both of those are different to what I learned. This is shorter but flows well:
How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood? It would chuck as much as a woodchuck would if a woodchuck could chuck wood!
I believe the article's version should be replaced with either the one above or this one. 89.243.88.127 21:56, 8 February 2007 (UTC)
Article Adjusted
I've moved around some of the text and created another section in the article. For now, behavior and anatomy are in the new section. Hopefully the article will be expanded a bit, allowing for more organization. BioTube 21:05, 30 June 2006 (UTC)
Male/Female size ratio?
Does anyone know if females are generally larger or smaller than males? I'm trying to better identify some local groundhogs which seem to differ a lot in size. -- Stbalbach 03:59, 5 October 2006 (UTC)
Whistle pig
I added that groundhogs are also known as whistle pigs in British Columbia. It's true, though, why do you think whistler is called whistler, from whistlepigs.
should we add that whistle pigs whistle, though it seems obvious from the name...but yeah they do whistle...hence whistler, British Columbia
Which one is the whistle pig, then? The article for hoary marmot also lists that as being called the "whistle pig"... --Wiki Wikardo 11:01, 31 January 2010 (UTC)
I've also heard guinea pigs referred to as "whistle pig"--that's possibly just someone's idiosyncratic usage though. 12.151.138.194 (talk) 11:40, 7 February 2011 (UTC)
Image caption
It is clear that User:Stbalbach and I are in a revert war over the caption for Image:Groundhog-Standing2.jpg. The intial caption read "Groundhog standing erect." Stbalbach changed the caption to read "Groundhogs graze on a salad of vegetarian variety." I find the new caption objectionable because the groundhog in the image is not feeding, it is in an alert posture, the use of the term "salad" is just strange in this context, the term "vegetarian variety" is also very awkward, and the statement overall is quite informal. If standing erect is not desired, perhaps "Groundhog in alert posture" or "Groundhog surveying its surroundings". Instead of violating the three revert rule, I invite other editors to comment. --Aranae 04:09, 12 December 2006 (UTC)
From mammal fact sheets: Woodchuck. [1] "Woodchucks seem constantly on the alert when outside their burrows and give a shrill warning whistle when alarmed." I wonder if this information would serve as a basis for an informative caption? --Walter Siegmund (talk) 04:04, 14 December 2006 (UTC)
Can they really chuck wood???
I keep hearing that a woodchuck cannot chuck on wood, but all chucking is is quickly consuming on wood. Do any of you believe or know as to whether a woodchuck can or cannot chuck on wood, or is this all just a myth? JustN5:12 01:34, 13 February 2007 (UTC)
I would like to point out that though the woodchuck's name probably started as wuchak as the article stated.....It can not be dismissed that the name woodchuck has nothing to do with wood or 'chucking'. The fact is that wood piles that people kept year round for cooking and heating have always been a favorite denning place. Well actually under them. Because an opening anywhere in the pile would provide multiple exit points, and the animal can actually crawl into the pile in order to dig, while the pile itself protects the animal. -- Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.121.253.98 (talk) 00:48, 3 March 2012 (UTC)
Odd sentence
These bones make them able to survive direct blows to the head that would cripple other mammals of the same body mass.
This odd statement should probably have a direct citation and/or some explanation of why it's important. --BryanD 22:27, 5 June 2007 (UTC)
Anatomy and behavior
Volume excavated.
Given a cubic metre of water weighs 1 tonne -approx 1 ton, I'm very surprised that this appears equated to 320kg of earth. I would have expected the density of most soils to be more than water even allowing for air between lumps. JRPG (talk) 22:11, 13 January 2008 (UTC)
If the soil density were greater than that of water density, surface tension would prevent water from penetrating soil. 76.98.121.196 (talk) 04:03, 30 July 2011 (UTC)
Killing Groundhogs
- It would be good to add a section on how to eradicate ground hogs. --Preceding unsigned comment added by SoilMan2007 (talk o contribs) 22:10, 5 April 2008 (UTC)
They are much harder to drown than kittens. I wish someone would give directions on skinning and removing the scent glands and add some recipes. --Preceding unsigned comment added by 63.19.221.127 (talk) 00:21, 17 May 2008 (UTC)
do groundhogs ingest rocks for some reason? i see them at the side of the road frequently.68.63.170.200 (talk) 14:22, 8 June 2008 (UTC)
Does anyone know how to eradicate them? I live in Wisconsin and because I have such poor drainage had to put in a mound system for our waste water. A family of woodchucks decided to move in and dug quite a deep hole right in the side of the mound leaving a very, very large pile of sand just below the entrance. --Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.207.240.10 (talk) 18:08, 17 July 2008 (UTC)
We shoot them on sight but they can be elusive. Also, my sister complains about killing them and has insisted that we use Have-a-Heart traps - so far we've caught two of them this way. She usually drives them across the river and lets them go to terrorize the poor folks on the other side. Maybe there should be a section in the article on the significance of the woodchuck as an agricultural pest, but I only have anecdotal evidence and can't cite any authority. --Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.71.216.244 (talk) 02:49, 18 July 2010 (UTC)
Groundhog geographic distribution
One of the 'related links' at the bottom of the page showed a geographic distribution that did not include North Carolina. But I can tell you for a fact that groundhogs are in North Carolina since there's one (at least) living under the decking of my house in Raleigh, NC. 14:12, 12 June 2008 (UTC)~ Larry Grossman
The opening says "Groundhogs are found as far north as Alaska, with their habitat extending south to Idaho." Groundhogs are found in many places south of Idaho. Any source for this? Chromaone (talk) 21:19, 2 August 2008 (UTC)
My Video of Ground Hog Feeding
I have a really nice video of a ground hog feeding, if the moderator of this page would like me to post it. Please tell me how to do so. It can be seen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16C3TWx1RYE Thank you ~KineticRic --Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.61.208.9 (talk) 17:29, 15 July 2008 (UTC)
Maps of habitat
Is there any maps of the habitat of this animal and others? Many encyclopedia's have these kind of maps.
I found that other animals have habitat maps: With the Template:Taxobox with the range_map section. travb (talk) 18:07, 10 January 2009 (UTC)
42 pounds???
Under the "human relevance" topic, what exactly does "42 pounds" mean? is this correct( and where is the citation) --Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.6.32.111 (talk) 05:32, 3 February 2009 (UTC)
2 babies, no mom.
I live in rural Kentucky and am quite familiar with the groundhog. Most people in the area call them a pest or nuisance and do their best to kill any they spot, even swerving deliberately to the shoulder of the road to hit them. And to my horror, have filled a den full of gas and set it ablaze, only to shot any that make it to an exit. Last week, while working in our garden, my husband and I spotted a very large groundhog helping with the yard work by munching on a patch of clover that grows near the creek that flows down the middle of our property. We sat and watched the creature for sometime, then went back to our business. When we finished and stood up, the groundhog spotted us and stood to get a better look. We stood there starring at each other for a few minutes. We, admiring the new resident on the property and it, sizing us up to see if we were a threat. Never in a million years! Well, the very next morning, I spotted the groundhog, dead on the side of the road. I was very upset and hurt that "our" groundhog had suffered the fate of many an unlucky groundhog. Today, almost a week later, I saw 2 babies in the same patch of clover and immediately googled to find out exactly what these creatures eat and how they behave. It stated that the pups are born late March, early April and do not leave the den for 5-6 weeks. It also stated that the pups stay with their mother for several months. It is obvious to me after reading the article, that these pups are very young and have been forced by hunger to leave the den much earlier than they normally would. Question: Is there anything my husband and I can do to help these pups or should we just cross our fingers and hope for the best and let nature take it's course? Thank you in advance for any help. 68.217.187.187 (talk) 22:24, 18 May 2009 (UTC) S. Turner
One more rejoinder
If a woodchuck could chuck wood he would
Chuck as much wood as a woodchuck could. --71.207.122.174 (talk) 19:35, 9 June 2009 (UTC)
WikiProject Rodents
This is a notice to inform interested editors of a new WikiProject being proposed at Wikipedia:WikiProject Council/Proposals/Rodents --???????????? BabelAlexandria 02:04, 24 June 2009 (UTC)
geographic distribution
The Groundhogs natural range stetches from Alaska southwest through Georgia. (national geographic) --Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.157.240.80 (talk) 23:46, 20 January 2010 (UTC)
That was my only comment. I live in North Georgia. I had actually never even seen a groundhog till I moved here. Where it seems like you can't drive down the highway without seeing atleast one on the side of the road happily eating lunch. Here it seems like they enjoy making their burrow in all of the wild patches of kudzu and ivy where they can be hidden. The groundhog in my backyard enjoys a very large burrow in the ivy that grows rampant in my backyard. I looked up groundhogs because although I see them everyday the one currently residing in my yard I usually spot at night ( early morning) but that may be because of my kids, soccer balls frequently flying past his burrow and our dog. I wanted to see if they usually have any nocturnal habits. 166.137.15.155 (talk) 12:13, 11 April 2011 (UTC)
hydration for groundhogs
I have noticed many groundhogs in my area, burrowing in fields or in/on the edge of wooded areas. i have not noticed many sources of water in the area. do they drink, or get enough hydration from the vegetation they consume? Chuck1974 (talk) 19:09, 2 May 2010 (UTC)chuck1974
GROUND HOG VISION
DO GROUND HOG'S HAVE GOOD VISION? CAN THEY SEE AT LONG DISTANCE OR ARE THEY LIMITED TO CLOSE UP? --Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.171.0.140 (talk) 01:24, 27 July 2010 (UTC)
I WILL say that they're FAR faster than appearances would suggest. I've been around them for ages, while I was doing things military in the forest, never had one run off, as they fed away from our area. Today, I watched one run down the driveway, as we came out of our southeast Pennsylvania home. While, a cat or dog could easily outrun it and catch it, it would be a bit of work for a cat to catch it. Tomorrow, to map out their burrow holes. Found one already. Then, see about putting cameras near them. And discouraging them from TOTALLY eating the garden foods... 76.98.121.196 (talk) 04:13, 30 July 2011 (UTC)
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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