Whistle pigs protect their territory

“I watched as a fox harassed a rock chuck at that lone tree down by the river,” my son-in-law, Steve, told me as we were having Sunday dinner at his place. “It appeared to be a stand-off and eventually the fox left the feisty rodent.”

About a week later, I decided to drive down to the area and stake it out for a few hours. As I drove in, I saw seven or eight yellow-bellied marmots leave their feeding and head for the safety of their burrows. I parked as close to a burrow as I could get, where I had seen one go down a hole in the middle of an area that had been dug up.

After about a 15-minute wait, a few near the tree started emerging from their burrows with the adults coming out first, followed by the yearlings before the pups came out. All were feeding furiously, as they need to gain a lot of fat before they disappear for an eight-month hibernation in their most-secure burrow.

As I was watching 11 of them feeding, I heard a shrill whistle and all of them ran back to their burrows. Two Swenson’s hawks had been sitting in the tree and had not alarmed the varmints, but a Bald eagle flying along the nearby Teton River had sent them scurrying for safety. Later, a couple walking their dog on the trail through the field also sent them for cover. Every time a threat of danger showed up, one of the adults sent the alarm with a whistle — hence, “whistle pigs” is one of their many names.

We know them as rock chucks, groundhogs, woodchucks and plain old marmots. They dig burrows in all kinds of terrain, but they usually have a rock or a log nearby that protects the entrance of their burrow. They do not form a couple bond, but each individual has its own burrow except when the female is raising her young.

The males are polygamists and may mate with up to four neighboring females. Each female has about four pups and by the time for hibernation comes in early September, she has kicked them out of her burrow and they must dig their own. The group forms a loose community that will use up to a couple of acres to feed and build homes in.

While building burrows, groundhogs can move up to 700 pounds of dirt per individual and can make burrow tunnels up to 40 feet long and five feet down.

The series of burrows that I was parked close to finally showed some more activity about an hour after the marmot had disappeared. It appeared that at least three yearling groundhogs had created the mess in a farmer’s field.

I watched as the three came out of their holes and began playing a game of tag with each other. They chased each other until one went down a hole and then waited until another came up. Once they appeared to tackle each other, the tackler was then chased by one of the others. It reminded me of elementary school children on a playground.

Marmots are very large compared to other rodents. In the wild they are generally four to nine pounds, but in captivity they can weigh as much as 20 pounds. They have a lifespan of two to three years in the wild, but in captivity they can live up to 22 years. The oldest known marmot was Wiarton Willie, a Groundhog Day weather predictor at Bruce Peninsula on Lake Huron in Canada.

The most famous one is Punxsutawney Phil, who is brought out of his burrow each Groundhog Day, February 2, to predict the amount of winter we have left. This tradition began in 1887 at Gobbler’s Knob in Pennsylvania and has become the only national holiday named after an animal. There are also nine other towns that have groundhogs predicting weather with one in Georgia, named Beauregard Lee, being the second-most-popular one.

The yellow-bellied marmots I watched and photographed are in the Rexburg City limits where shooting in not allowed, so they are safe from target shooters. If you have them on your property and they become a problem, Epson salts and lavender are two smells that are offensive to them. Or you can sell your property to an apartment developer, and they will remove them.

Like most wildlife, I enjoyed watching them even though the fox did not show up to put on a show for me.