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[LONGDISTSHTR <longdistshtr@InfoAve.Net>]

Sorry Lucky,  my scientific name for the American marmot/Sandhog
/Groundhog/Woodchuck was incorrect. I guess your newer name (Marmota
marmot) replaced Arctomys monax.  The Cree name was "Olcheck" thus
"Woodchuck".
As a matter of interest; Groundhog Day is Feb 2 some places and Feb 14
in other places and is supposed to predict 6 more weeks of winter if he
sees his penumbra/umbrage/shadow-an early Spring if he doesn't. This
idea came from Scotland, but I don't know what animal  it  applied to
there. Maybe a Hedgehog??
Alabama was probably too warm for the whistle pig.  They don't have six
weeks of Winter, eh?  The one you mentioned as being mangy was probably
worn out with all that warm weather.
They are more plentiful nowadays then they were in the forties. They are
heavy eaters of clover and put "chuck holes" all over the mountains.
Tree farmers despise them and some will pay bounty on them.  Cattle and
horses break their legs in their holes.  They are good eating but their
carcasses will putrify quickly.  Mountain folks prefer the young ones
which are born in the spring.  Many people don't know it but they will
climb leaning trees.  I've seen them as many as fifty feet off the
ground.
They are such pests that there are poisoning programs, which I hate, in
some areas.  The are entertainment for varmint hunters and they go to a
lot of expense and trouble to turn them into "red mists".
Doc Lisenby