Getty Images
Getty Images
loading...

February 2, is Groundhog Day, and Punxsutawney Phil reportedly saw his shadow and told his handlers six more weeks of winter weather. Here are Groundhog facts you may not know.

The prediction was made at Gobblers Knob in Pennsylvania. Since the late 1800 hundreds, Phil has predicted six more weeks of winter, 103 times and predicted an early spring only 18 times according to groundhog officials.

Did you know, Groundhogs, are actually male woodchucks. The answer to the question, How much wood could a woodchuck chuck, if a woodchuck could chuck wood, is close to 700 pounds.

Groundhogs grow to around 17 inches long and a tail that is about 5 inches, with a bulky body and short limbs. The fur is brown-gray and the eyes are black. They have sharp sturdy claws and their incisor teeth continue to grow throughout their life, which lasts normally around 5 years.

They are herbivores(plant eaters). They mainly eat grass, seeds, leaves, flowers, fruit, eggs, and some insects.

Groundhogs have many predators including wolves, dogs, coyotes, bobcats, foxes, and humans. They cannot move very fast so they use their keen eyesight and hearing to know about predators and retreat into their burrows which are 20 to 30 feet in length underground.

Groundhogs hibernate or sleep during the winter months, when their body temperature drops from 97 degrees to less than 40 degrees. Its breathing drops to around once every six minutes, and it's heartbeat slows from 100 beats per minute to around just 4.

Now groundhogs are kind of players, they wake up in early February from their hibernation and seek out a female in their territory. They get to know each other with small talk as kind of a first date. After meeting several females in this same manner, they return to their burrow to sleep for about another month until March.

After the slumbering they wake up for the season and go back to see their girlfriends they met the month before. These encounters are more serious than the get to know you meetings. Miraculously a little later in the spring there are new baby groundhogs running around.

Experts who have studied this dating ritual say it is specific to groundhogs and found to only occur with groundhogs, no other animals. They are unique.

Of course there are probably a lot of women out their who say they have met some men, who have those traits....just sayin.

Enjoy your Groundhog Day, and remember we still have six more weeks of winter before Spring officially starts, so says Punxsutawney Phil, and John Williams.

 

 

 

More From Good Time Oldies 107.5