Tree Hog: A Groundhog Adventure

Maybe we shouldn't have been, but we were surprised the first time we saw a groundhog in a tree. We had always seen them on the ground, and it just didn't occur to us that, being rodents, they could probably climb. Our Uncle Dean told us he had seen them climb trees on a number of occasions; turns out they do so in order to get the lay of the land -- to scan the area for predators. 

For several years, we've had groundhogs living in our garden, and every spring we look forward to 'our' groundhog(s) waking up. There are three or four holes out back, most of them in our garden, but one in the neighbour's. Groundhogs, like other rodents, like to have an escape route handy. And their tunnels are big: they can be four to five feet deep and 25-30 feet long. 

Groundhogs do hibernate, but they will wake up if it's warm enough, and even go wandering about; one year we found our groundhog had climbed all the way up our back stairs to the door, as if considering whether or not to wake us for a cup of tea. (The pawprint was muddy and quite clear.) 

Groundhogs are quite hospitable. They sometimes share their dens with neighbours such as rabbits and other mammals. 

They mate in March or April, and have two to six young in April or May. 

Groundhogs will eat from gardens, but they also like weeds; our fellow has been seen munching on dandelions in the rain (groundhogs seem to prefer rainy or overcast days, probably because they're mostly diurnal). They also like acorns. We've had a groundhog eat fallen acorns off our front porch before, happily noshing until we tried to take a picture. He heard us, of course, and ran off -- they can run quite quickly. We've heard (in novels) that groundhogs like apples, and somewhere we heard that they like PB&J sarnies, as well . . . but we don't know if the sarnies are good for them or not, so we don't advise it. 

We got this information from our own experiences as well as Mammals by William H. Burt and Richard P. Grossenheider. The photo we found on Google Images is from entrepremusings.com (https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&site=imghp&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1280&bih=856&q=groundhog&oq=groundhog&gs_l=img.1.0.0l10.993.2619.0.4934.9.6.0.3.3.0.234.681.3j2j1.6.0...0.0.0..1ac.1.16.img.JLTt9rvpw9U).