Marmota monax Region: From south-central Alaska south through central Canada to the Midwestern and eastern United States.

Rodent Holiday Chubby ground squirrels The roly-poly rodents you sometimes see munching grass along roads and highways are groundhogs (sometimes called woodchucks). They’re large members of the squirrel family, but unlike many of their arboreal relatives, groundhogs stick to the ground. And they are probably the only rodent that has a holiday named after them! Groundhog Day Every February 2, people across the nation watch as folks in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania gather to see if the groundhog emerges and sees its shadow. If so, legend has it that there will be at least six weeks of wintry weather left. If the day is cloudy and the groundhog is shadowless, spring will come early. The groundhog’s supposed aptitude for predicting the weather is based on German folklore that goes back several hundred years. The first official Groundhog Day was in 1886, and since then groundhogs have been successful in forecasting the season only 39% of the time. They may lack meteorological skills, but they’re expert hibernators. Hibernation During the late summer and early fall, groundhogs eat heartily and put on a thick layer of fat. By the time the weather turns cold, they’re plump enough to live through the winter without eating, as long as they hibernate. Groundhogs dig a winter burrow and curl up into a ball on a bed of grasses. During hibernation, their metabolism slows down to conserve energy---they breathe only once every six minutes, and their heart beats only four times a minute. All the while, their body temperature drops to as low as 40 degrees Fahrenheit. By the time they emerge in springtime, they may have lost half their body weight. Dig it Groundhogs are great diggers. They use the long claws on their large feet like spades while tunneling through soil. When complete, their burrows may be 12 feet deep and 50 feet long. Groundhogs build chambers for different purposes. There’s one for giving birth, one for sleeping, and even a bathroom chamber. Just the facts Body length: 16 to 32 inches Tail length: 4 to 10 inches Weight: 4 to 15 pounds Distribution: From south-central Alaska south through central Canada to the Midwestern and eastern United States Habitat: Pastures, meadows, old fields, and woods Wild diet: Green vegetation such as grasses, alfalfa, and clover Brookfield Zoo diet: Rabbit chow, mixed greens, carrots, rat chow, hard-boiled eggs, and apples Groundhogs at Brookfield Zoo Children’s Zoo is home to Cloudy, the annual participant in the Groundhog Day celebration at Brookfield Zoo. Cloudy now has some new company: a recently acquired groundhog named... Stormy.