Not only does it specialize in weather predictions, it is also very busy chucking wood. Like most hibernators, the boys usually wake up first to scout out the best breeding territories. As soon as the females wake up, breeding occurs. Young are born in a burrow in May and emerge from them in mid-June, undoubtedly seeing their shadows. Fortunately, this does not mean we then only have six more weeks of summer.
Groundhogs eat green vegetation.
Grasses, dandelions and the like are favorite foods. Waking up so early in the year, they are forced to eat twigs and bark first of all. This perhaps explains their wood chucking ability. Other than gophers or ground squirrels, it is very difficult to see many of the smaller mammals that live in Elk Island. I have seen a groundhog.