Kathy Jean Johnson, age 11, of Castana, Iowa, for her question:
Maybe you call this charming fellow the woodchuck. It any case, the ground hog is not hoggish in any way, nor related to any member of the pig family, lend he never chucks wood, being far too fat and lazy for any king of hard work. The old charmer has still another alias. He is also known as the marmot. actually, whatever you call him, he is a ground squirrel, a large and lazy relative of the prairie dog.
The ground hog is the largest member of the pixie‑like squirrel family. He may measure 18 to 20 inches, plus another five or six inches of tail. He is a plump and heavy set fellow with short legs and a coat of coarse, heavy long fur. He is greyish brown, the western varieties being somewhat larger and paler than their eastern relatives.
The face of the ground hog is less pointed than most squirrel faces. The head is rounded, the nose blunt and the small round ears peep just above the thick fur. The bright eyes may look sleepy but they never miss a trick. Old Fatso may tip the scales at eight pounds or more. He moves more slowly than his quick, jumpy squirrel cousins and he cannot climb trees.
Just about every meat eating animal in the fields and woods is out to get himself a fat woodchuck for dinner. So our Fatso has to be smart and stay alert. He has a sharp nose for trouble and stands on his back legs sniffing around before he makes a move. In spite of all the dangers, a great number of the fat fellows live to reach a ripe old age.
What's more, every woodchuck manages to enjoy his easy going life to the fullest. He loves sunshine and spends the day nibbling weeds, rots and grasses. He often dines squatting on his haunches using his hands to break off stems and stuff leaves into his toothy mouth. His leisurely dining is fascinating to watch. You would never guess that every minute, his eyes, ears and nose are alert for danger.
All winter long, the ground hog is nowhere to be seen. He is asleep in his burrow, maybe along with several of his relatives. The door of the burrow is pealed burrow is sealed shut with maybe a foot of mud and straw. Fatso spends the winter curled up in a furry ball asleep in a bed of dried grasses.
The ground hog builds his home early in life right after he leaves his mother. It is a well made burrows maybe ten foot long and three feet below the surface. There are several exits in case of trouble. There are a number of side rooms for guests or storage and one master bedroom at the end of the tunnel. This is the home where the ground hog sleeps each night and all through the winter.
February 2, as everyone knows, is Ground Hog Day. The sleepy fellow is then supposed to come out and survey the weather. If he sees his shadow, they say, he pops back to bed for another six weeks. Is this tale true? The fact is, if old lazy bones just happened to wake up any time before March he would go right back to sleep. And, in any case, sunshine in early February often means more winter and clouds at that time may mean an early spring – maybe.