Don't have to go far to find groundhogs
By Jenny Hopkinson • Staff Writer • February 3, 2009

OCEAN CITY -- Jim Rapp remembers the first time he saw a groundhog.

"I grew up in Salisbury and we never saw them when I was a kid," said Rapp, former head of the Salisbury Zoo, and now director of Delmarva Low Impact Tourism Experiences. "I ran cross country in high school and probably in my 10th grade year -- it must have been about 1985 -- we had a meet in Cambridge at South Dorcester. I was sitting on the bus on the drive up there, looking out the window, and I remember seeing one on a bank on the side of the road -- and groundhogs are big, they aren't little creatures -- and thinking 'what's that doing here?'"

When the famed groundhog Punxsutawney Phil stuck his head out of his burrow Monday morning, the four-legged rodent set what many say is a steadfast prediction for the coming of spring. (He saw his shadow -- an omen for continued cold weather.) While thousands gather each year in Punxsutawney, Pa., to watch Phil do what weathermen, online psychics and less revered burrowing mammals can only dream of -- predict the future -- the new prevalence of the rodents locally, set to come out of hibernation in the next few weeks, is anything but a cause for celebration.

"I see them all the time now," Rapp said. "On median strips and the side of the road and edges of fields. Anywhere that there is a piece of high ground -- like a little ridge -- you will see groundhogs."

Groundhogs are indigenous to the Lower Shore, but their populations have increased considerably in the past several years as the land has been drained for farming and development, said Robert Colona, a furbearing-animal biologist with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources.

"They burrow, and especially on the Eastern Shore, where the water table is very close to the ground level, as we've developed land and built it up, groundhogs have become more prevalent," Colona said. "Now they can burrow without drowning."

Since groundhogs are not game animals nor considered endangered or protected species, the populations are not counted or tracked by local governments. Biologists know they are increasing in number because of visual observations and complaints from farmers and homeowners, Colona said.

"In agricultural areas, they can eat crops and dig extensive dens that can cause damage to farm equipment -- tractor's axles break when they fall in them," he said. "In urban areas, they will eat vegetable gardens and decorative plants. So, yeah, they can cause problems."

In Maryland, it is not illegal to hunt and trap groundhogs for food. Joe Parish, a Seaford resident who runs the Delmarva Survival Training blog, has reprinted instructions for building a snare and cooking the pesky rodents on his site. Crockpot groundhog not your style? There's always groundhog cacciatore.

Parish -- with fresh memories of groundhogs making "short work of my garden" -- decided his readers might benefit from writer Allen Easterly's information about how to clear the pests with common hardware materials including washers and wires, and if necessary, easy ways to prepare their catch into a tasty meal.

However, for those opposed to hunting and eating the furry mammal, Rapp, the DLITE director, doesn't recommend turning the catch into a pet.

"Wild mammals can carry rabies and other things and so it's not normally a good idea," he said. "They can be dangerous -- groundhogs have very big teeth."

jhopkinson@dmg.gannett.com

410-213-9442, ext. 17

Original at: http://www.delmarvanow.com/article/20090203/OPI01/902030303/-1/opi