Apparently groundhogs do not care

[wispfox]

I was sitting by the side of my small backyard pond removing debris (and encouraging attached critters to go back in the water) when I noticed the plants behind me pushing on me. I was like maybe it's the wind? Waited a bit longer after freezing just in case, and who came out to nom on the plants by the pond?

This critter!

(for brief video on google photos click here)

(for brief video on google photos click here)

Comments

[starandrea]

What an adorable nommer! ♥.♥

We have a mama groundhog who lives in the middle of our rock garden out back, which she mostly doesn't disturb (except for periodically refreshing her burrow and thus adding to the mount of dirt in the middle of the path I leave for her) except when she has babies, and then she and the babies eat everything in sight.

(On the other hand, it does give me an excuse to keep getting new plants until I find ones that are less tasty than nature??)

They are all very cute when they come out of their burrow in a little line, and also when they just lie in the grass (nomming clover? napping? both at the same time?) sunning themselves in a very "do not care" sort of way.

[wispfox]

Oh, neat! Interesting with this one and what I've noticed thus far (I must point out that we rarely mow, perhaps allowing more variety of plants) - it never seemed to eat all of any of the plants it nommed. So it certainly ate everything in sight - including some of my food plants - but never the whole things.

Do you think this might have been a baby? Or maybe a year old one, just by size?

[gingicat]

Neat!

[lb_lee]

Sneak: Aw, these photos are so nice! :D

[wispfox]

I'm still astonished that it either pushed past me directly or by moving through plants that were right behind me! And that it mostly did not care about my camera (well, phone, but you know).

[squirrelitude]

Oh, very cute! And more bold than the groundhog who lives (lived?) near us, who is something of a ghost.

[wispfox]

I'm guessing it must be young, by pure size and lack of care about my presence. It may even have grown up in my yard (thereby explaining why many of my food plants have one or two leaves removed intermittently). I'm impressed that it did not fully eat any of the plants I saw it noming - they must know to let them keep growing (or of course their instinct does, perhaps by making them want variety).

[squirrelitude]

Yes! When I've watched rabbits eat, they cut down the whole plant and then eat the bits they want, but groundhogs apparently eat the leaves off the sides and leave the growing tip intact. (This was originally inference from observing how some plants in the neighbor's yard were eaten, but I finally talked to someone who studied groundhogs and she was able to confirm this.) Groundhogs can be pretty serious garden pests but I feel like rabbits are far worse in this regard.

[elusiveat]

Hah! Love seeing those guys : )