Yet, they seem to disappear during the winter months. Yes. The males come out of their dens to make preparations for the mating season. A groundhog is a rodent, and therefore needs to chew in order to keep its teeth at a manageable length. They often build a separate burrow for their hibernation. Most groundhogs can hibernate for up to five months at a time. The same den is also used for mating (which occurs just after hibernation ends) and raising young. Lack of a consistent diet before hibernation can lead to a decrease in groundhog’s energy, leading to starvation and death during hibernation. A woodchuck burrow will often have one main entrance and one emergency escape entrance or spy-hole. Groundhogs (also known as woodchucks), medium- to large-sized rodents in the Sciuridae family, are a common intruder in many backyards and homes. They do not wake all winter. Spring, summer, and fall months are the times when groundhogs are most likely to cause mayhem on your property. Pregnancy goes by fast for them. Groundhogs hibernate in winter, during which time they do not stir from their burrows. This ensures that they’re able to prepare for the upcoming hibernation period. Without enough nutrient dense food to chew, the groundhog would operate at an energy deficit and ultimately die of starvation. While hibernating, groundhogs survive solely on the fat reserves they spent the summer and fall accumulating. (However, baby groundhogs sometimes do fall prey to raptors such as hawks, owls, and eagles.) Groundhogs have babies from late winter until the spring or early summer and hibernate in the winter. In the winter, they hibernate. After roughly three months of hibernation, evidence suggests that male groundhogs wake up early to prepare for the mating season. The most humane time to get rid of woodchucks is from mid- to late summer. Without enough nutrients to chew, groundhogs become malnourished. 4. They can eat about a pound of food per sitting. For example, the groundhog's brain doesn't need the same amount of oxygen when hibernating as it does when he's awake, and scientists are trying to find a way to apply a "hibernating" principle to a human brain to help alleviate stroke damage. Groundhog’s Preparation For Hibernation. If their fat reserves run low early, however, groundhogs may wake up prematurely to eat. Slide 10: What are some animals that experience true hibernation? Groundhogs experience true hibernation. During hibernation, groundhogs will lose half of their body weight so they’re going to be very hungry come February. Around this time, they’ll emerge and begin hunting for fruits, vegetables, and everything else they can eat. Groundhogs are solitary creatures, and they spend their summers and falls stuffing themselves and taking naps in the sun. Garter snakes do … 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. So, do groundhogs hibernate? Groundhogs spend a good amount of time during the warmer months preparing for the winter sleep. Slide 11: Do garter snakes hibernate? They live off fat that is stored in their body. Groundhog mating season is in the early spring and, after only a month-long pregnancy, mother groundhogs typically give birth to a litter of two to six blind, hairless babies. The preparations involve surveying their territories and making house calls to the burrows where females live. Groundhog hibernation is the focus of several types of studies that are trying to find ways to improve people's health. 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