It was a beautiful evening this Friday and finally felt like fall since it was considerably cooler after storms the previous night. After I got home from work I decided to lace up my running shoes since this weather can't be wasted sitting inside. None of my normal running routes sounded intriguing to me so I headed to the cemetery since I hadn't run there for a long time and it is one of my favorite fall running spots. I was on my second loop around the cemetery lost in the thoughts of my head from the week and the silence and stillness of this hallowed place when all of a sudden I see a gray flash scamper across the ground. I had see several squirrels and rabbits about earlier but this seemed different-- and larger. It had ducked into a culvert with just its nose sticking out and I couldn't quite tell what it was. As I got closer it would edge back into the culvert out of sight. I decided to hide behind the trunk of a tree about ten feet away from the culvert and wait to see if he would come out again since I was pretty curious. Finally it decided to stick its head out and sure enough it wasn't a rabbit or a squirrel. But I had no idea what this creature really was. It wasn't a raccoon or badger, a mole or a vole, a prairie dog or a beaver. I'm in Kansas so marmot was marked of the list. It had a gray-brown coat with little tiny ears and looked to be just a touch smaller than a raccoon. It finally crawled out and sat taking in the surroundings carefully. At this point Verizon decided it would be a good time to text me about upgrading my phone-- luckily it didn't seem frightened by the commotion even though it is terrible to get text messages while scouting unknown wildlife. I stood behind the tree watching it for several minutes. It didn't get far away from the culvert but it did stand up on its back legs and sniff the area several times-- probably a little confused by the nearby ceder smelled strongly of sweat. Eventually we both got bored and moved on. Since I couldn't ask the creature, "Hey what kind of large rodent are you," I headed home for the assistance of Google images.
And wouldn't you know, there was this creature's pictures under woodchuck and groundhogs. I sure didn't know we had woodchucks in Kansas so I had to delve into further research by turning to Wikipedia. Woodchucks and groundhogs are the same thing and related to marmots. Their territory extends from the East Coast just into eastern Kansas. This woodchuck must be a pioneer heading westward to reunite with its marmot cousins. Wikipedia also had a section on woodchucks and human interactions and I just loved this paragraph...
A report in 1883 by the New Hampshire Legislative Woodchuck Committee
illustrates the attitude of some people toward this animal. In part this
report stated "The woodchuck, despite its deformities both of mind and
body, possesses some of the amenities of a higher civilization. It
cleans its face after the manner of squirrels, and licks its fur after
the manner of a cat. Your committee is too wise, however, to be deceived
by this purely superficial observance of better habits. Contemporaneous
with the ark, the woodchuck has not made any material progress in
social science, and it is now too late to reform the wayward sinner. The
average age of the woodchuck is too long to please your committee...The
woodchuck is not only a nuisance, but also a bore. It burrows beneath
the soil, and then chuckles to see a mowing machine, man and all, slump
into one of these holes and disappear...Your
committee is confident that a small bounty will prove of incalculable
good at all vents, even as an experiment , it is certainly worth trying;
therefore your committee would respectfully recommend that the
accompanying bill be passed.
It makes me chuckle to think about legislatures debating what to do about woodchucks. However it does seem that the legislature in this case was at least able to agree on what to do and stand with a united front against the wayward sinners of woodchucks. I also love the strong language which was used in this piece against such a small, furry rodent.
With my new found knowledge about woodchucks and actually seeing one which seems to be fairly uncommon in this part of the state I had to alert Arthur that our town is now in danger of woodchucks. I saw a coyote once in town and found that slightly distressing too. Then there was the time I was running and saw a large dark shadowy creature cross the road a few blocks in front of me which was also disconcerting. It turned out to be a peacock. I'm just not sure we are safe with all of this wildlife running about in our quaint town. However, stalking this wood chuck was a good excuse for me to pause my run and take a breather. Omnia Vincit Amor.
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