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Hmmm…I’d like to think that groundhogs wouldn’t be that annoying. Here’s what I believe they’d say:

Please don’t ask me how much wood I chuck.” – Groundhogs are also known as woodchucks. However, “woodchuck” comes from an Algonquian name for the animal, wuchak. They don’t actually toss wood.

“How you doin’?” – Contrary to popular belief, when male groundhogs emerge in February after their three-month-long hibernation, they aren’t checking on the timing of spring. Nope. They’re looking for some love.

“I’m cool as a cucumber.” – While hibernating, a woodchuck’s body temperature can drop from about 99 degrees to as low as 37. (Humans go into mild hypothermia when their body temperature drops a mere 3 degrees, lose consciousness at 82 degrees and face death below 70 degrees.)

“Where’s the salad bar?”– During warm seasons, a groundhog may pack in more than a pound of vegetation at one sitting, which is much like a 150-pound man scarfing down a 15-pound steak.

“Michael Phelps has nothing on me.” – In addition to being great at burrowing, groundhogs are stellar swimmers. They’re also expert tree climbers, especially when chased.

And, last but not least…

“Yes, I do like ‘Groundhog Day’, the movie.” – Well, who doesn’t love a flick starring both Punxsutawney Phil and Bill Murray?

Want to Dig Deeper?

The Truth about Groundhog Day

10 Things You May Not Know About Groundhogs

On Groundhog Day: Ten Things to Know about These Surprising Creatures

Eat Your Phil

I’ll never forget looking out the window when I was 10 and seeing two wild boars in my front yard.  Growing up in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains in North Georgia, I saw lots of “wild” things: deer, turtles, snakes, countless red and blue birds, frogs, moles… it’s an endless list for the endless amount of wildlife that call it “home.”

I recently relocated to the District of Columbia, and happily, my wildlife viewing has not stopped.  I work at the National Wildlife Federation headquarters in Reston, Virginia, where we are lucky to have wildlife right outside the door. You should see how many grown men and women turn into that 10-year-old kid again when we walk outside and see a critter or two.  We’ve had some pretty wild encounters–not to mention our “home” is pretty wild all on its own.

10 “Wildest” Things Happening in National Wildlife Federation Headquarters’ Backyard

#10 Watch your step!

When we arrive to work, we never know what we’re going to see, like this guy. From praying mantids to deer you are almost guaranteed to spot wildlife around NWF’s headquarters.  NWF’s Naturalist David Mizejewski helped me identify the mantis in our picture and it’s a Chinese mantis, an introduced species to the United States around 1895, and is one of the most commonly seen in this area.

#9 Solar power

In our front yard, we have a demonstration solar panel near the flagpole that actually provides the hot water for the showers on the lower level.

#8 We compost

NWF’s Cool It! Recycling Committee has a composter at headquarters that everyone uses to throw in leftovers, such as fruit and veggie scraps, crushed eggshells, coffee grinds and tea bags.  Staff members from the Committee help maintain it by stirring it a few times a year.  Compost makes great fertilizer for gardens and household plants.

#7 GROUNDHOG SIGHTING!

NWF staffers sometimes see our resident groundhog who lives behind the vine-covered trellis (Wild Happening #2).  He can be seen all over headquarters: bathing himself in the shade, running around the pond or even snoozing!

#6 We have a “wildlife-friendly” set up

There are no storm drains on the property and nearly everything that falls on the building and grounds drains into our two bio-retention swales in the parking lot. This includes the water from our rooftop heating, ventilation and air condition units. The swales—a low tract of land— have a special soil mix that allow them to maintain more moisture and slowly disperse it into the local watershed, which prevents erosion.  This also allows the trees and wetland plants in the bio-retention area to filter pollutants from run-off water.

As NWF Scientist Doug Inkley describes it: “It has to be the most wildlife-friendly parking lot I’ve ever known.  This was by design, and it worked.  Breeding orchard orioles, mallards, Eastern bluebirds, tree swallows, frogs; and I see fox, deer, box turtles, red-shouldered hawks, woodchucks and more.”

#5 Let’s go Geocaching

Ranger Rick’s Geocache Trails are family friendly, wildlife-themed, outdoor treasure hunts that encourage kids to get outdoors. Using GPS-enabled devices, people seek and find hidden geocaches on trails at places such as parks, campgrounds, and nature centers.  There are a number of geo-caches in the woods right behind headquarters, including one that is maintained by NWF staff.  I went for the first time and I couldn’t believe it when I found out there are millions of these all over the world!

#4 Our “home” is certified

Yes we are! NWF’s headquarters is a Certified Wildlife Habitat^®.  We have a pond for water supply, great cover (see Wild Happening #2), ample food sources like fringe trees and wild bergamot, , and headquarters is surrounded by acres of trees, flowers and vines for young to be raised (see Wild Happening #3 and #1!).

#3  “Wild Animal Babies” live here

Just like our magazine, Wild Animal Babies suggests, we can’t get enough of baby animals, and these little raccoons—recorded right outside headquarters—learning to climb are no exception:

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#2 We’re covered in vines!

#1 “I like turtles.”

Just like the Zombie kid from 2007, we like turtles too.  On rainy days you’ll see folks checking under their cars before driving off to make sure there aren’t any turtles hanging out. Or sometimes, we find them in the most unusual places, like this wee box turtle in the picture found by NWF Staffer Ben Spector.  Spector stumbled upon him on our front doorstep and helped relocate the turtle to a safer place.  Wild, right? Well, it’s probably pretty tame, but we’re all turtle guardians and help protect the “wild” life we love.

Got wild things happening in your backyard? Share your sightings and stories with us at NWF’s Wildlife Watch.

Wildlife-Friendly DMV: Keep it Local, Keep it “Wild”

Here are ten things you may not have known about America’s “woodchucks.”

1. The name “woodchuck” does not come from these creatures tossing wood around or from just being woodland dwellers but rather it comes from an Algonquian (possibly Narragansett) name for the animal, wuchak.
2. The average animal weighs between 4-9 pounds but some (in places where there is alfalfa farming, for example) have been known to reach 30 pounds which would make them “woodchunks.”
3. Many people are surprised to discover that groundhogs are accomplished swimmers and (when pursued by a predator or reaching for a snack) are excellent tree climbers.
4. When they observe something that might be a threat, they will rise up on their hind legs and let out a clear warning whistle to family members much in the same way as prairie dogs in the West.
5. The average wild groundhog will live for two to three years.  One animal was actually known to have lived for 22 years in captivity in Wiarton, Ontario (the iconic “Wiarton Willie”).  The U.S. version of Willie is Punxsutawney Phil (from Pennsylvania).  Legend has it, from the local Punxsutawney townspeople, that Phil is over 100 years old.   Hmm.
6. Groundhogs hibernate for three to six months each year and, prior to going underground, will accumulate a half inch layer of fat to hold them over.  An adult animal will eat about one third of its body weight per day in late summer which makes them a true challenge for many gardeners.
7. Groundhogs are champion diggers.  On average, an animal will remove about 700 pounds of soil to make a burrow.  The burrow is designed with several rooms and extends for 25 to 35 feet.  One to three entrances are included.  Farmers have been known to say that a groundhog “eats to give himself the strength to dig holes, and then dig holes to give himself an appetite.”
8. In Delaware, Ohio, a groundhog burrow actually ended up uncovering a Native American archaeological site.  It is called the Ufferman Site from the Woodland period and the groundhogs have excavated bones, pottery and stone tools.
9. The first official Groundhog Day was celebrated on February 2, 1886 in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania.  As indicated above, this event gave rise to the annual observation of the groundhog activities of “Punxsutawney Phil.” The town of Wiarton in Ontario, Canada, has a similar iconic weather predictor called “Wiarton Willie.”
10. The “Groundhog Day” legend comes from German tradition when, on Candlemas Day, people would tell a tale of hedgehogs or badgers serving as a test for the remaining duration of winter.  The first recorded U.S. reference was made Feb. 4, 1841 in Morgantown, Pennsylvania when storekeeper James Morris’ diary made this entry: “Last Tuesday, the 2nd, was Candlemas Day, the day on which, according to the Germans, the Groundhog peeps out of his winter quarters and if he sees his shadow he pops back for another six weeks nap, but if the day be cloudy he remains out, as the weather is to be moderate.”

At the National Wildlife Federation’s offices in Reston, Virginia, we have several resident groundhogs.  They pretty much have the run of the place in the summer months and can been seen sunning on the rocks by our pond or climbing the bushes in our wildlife garden for leafy snacks. We try to talk them into waiting until the plants in the garden have grown up a bit more but they are less patient. In all, groundhogs are amazing creatures that are full of surprises and certainly seek their own counsel.

Want to Learn More?

For more great groundhog news and information on all sorts of other wildlife, donate today and join National Wildlife Federation. You’ll receive our award-winning National Wildlife Magazine and a monthly e-newsletter, both packed with great wildlife content.

The groundhog, also known as the woodchuck or the mouse bear (because it looks like a miniature bear when sitting upright), first won its reputation as a weather prognosticator in 1886, when the editor of western Pennsylvania’s Punxsutawney Spirit newspaper, one Clymer Freas, published a report that local groundhogs had not seen their shadows that day, signaling an early spring.

This story begat Punxsutawney Phil, the legendary woodchuck weathercreature, which begat Ground Hog Day and the familiar idea that Phil (and his namesake successors down through the years) can predict the perpetuation of winter.

It is likely that the story of Phil is based on European beliefs that badgers and hedgehogs can provide signals about the future; lacking those species in his area, old Clymer substituted the local animal that most resembles a badger or a hedgehog.

But the groundhog is much more than a weather rodent. It’s also a real animal with a real life.

Here are 10 things you may not know about this roly-poly rodent:

1. Groundhogs are among the few animals that are true hibernators, fattening up in the warm seasons and snoozing for most of three months during the chill times.
2. While hibernating, a woodchuck’s body temperature can drop from about 99 degrees to as low as 37 (Humans go into mild hypothermia when their body temperature drops a mere 3 degrees, lose consciousness at 82 degrees and face death below 70 degrees).
3. The  heart rate of a hibernating woodchuck slows from about 80 beats per minute to 5.
4. Breathing slows from around 16 breaths per minute to as few as 2.
5. During hibernation—150 days without eating—a woodchuck will lose no more than a fourth of its body weight thanks to all the energy saved by the lower metabolism.
6. During warm seasons, a groundhog may pack in more than a pound of vegetation at one sitting, which is much like a 150-pound man scarfing down a 15-pound steak.
7. To accommodate its bodacious appetite, woodchucks grow upper and lower incisors that can withstand wear and tear because they grow about a sixteenth of an inch each week.
8. If properly aligned, woodchuck upper and lower incisors grind away at each other with every bite, keeping suitably short; when not in good order, they may miss one another and just keep growing until they look like the tusks on a wild boar; if too long, a woodchuck’s upper incisors can impale the lower jaw, with fatal results.
9. Woodchuck burrows, which the animals dig as much as 6 feet deep, can meander underground for 20 feet or more, usually with two entrances but in some cases with nearly a dozen.
10. Burrows provide groundhogs with their chief means of evading enemies, because the rotund little guys (just before hibernation, a hefty woodchuck may tip the scales at 14 pounds) are too slow to escape most predators in a dead heat: the rodents have a top speed of only 8 mph, while a hungry fox may hit 25 mph.

Bonus Fact: Although groundhogs may not be the best weather predictors, they do in fact emerge from dens in early February. This is the practice of males as they rouse themselves to wander around their 2- to 3-acre territories in search of burrows belonging to females, which the males will enter and where they may spend the night. Research suggests that no mating takes place at this time; the visits probably just let the animals get to know one another so that they can get right down to the business of breeding when they emerge for good in March. Outside of the mating season, woodchucks are solitary, except for females with young, which usually are born in early April.