Groundhogs can swim? Video shows ‘unusual glimpse’ of one paddling along in Tennessee
A groundhog was caught on video showing off its surprisingly swift swimming skills in Tennessee last week.
The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency posted a video to Facebook on Monday of the groundhog paddling along in the Nolichucky River, which runs 115 miles through western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee.
“Wildlife Officer John Ripley caught an unusual glimpse of a groundhog swimming in the Nolichucky River last week,” the agency wrote on Facebook. “You never know what you’ll find in the Tennessee great outdoors!”
At one point, the groundhog veers toward the boat before swerving away and going about its business.
“Groundhogs can swim...who knew???” the agency wrote.
But the marmots are more agile than one might think.
Not only can they swim — they can also climb trees, according to the Wildlife Medical Clinic at Illinois. They just prefer to “spend most of their time on the ground.”
They’re also quite the craftsmen and have a taste for the finer things in life when it comes to their homes.
The homes they build — called burrows — can be up to 66 feet long and host “multiple exits and a number of chambers,” including ones they use as bathrooms, according to National Geographic.
“They have a burrow for hibernating, and then they have another section of the burrow that’s more like their summer home where they can come out more easily,” Stam Zervanos, retired professor of biology at Pennsylvania State University, told National Geographic.
Groundhogs are “fairly antisocial,” according to the Wildlife Medical Clinic.
“They only interact with each other when it is mating season,” the clinic says. “Even after giving birth to a liter of 4-6 pups in mid-to-late spring, the pups stay with their mother for a few months before being weaned; but once they are weaned, they are then sent off on their own.”
Groundhogs then “gorge themselves” in the summer and fall before heading off to hibernate in the winter, the clinic says.
This story was originally published April 26, 2021 at 3:39 PM with the headline "Groundhogs can swim? Video shows ‘unusual glimpse’ of one paddling along in Tennessee."
