<\/p>
T<\/b>he word \u2018woodchuck\u2019 (another name for a groundhog) is thought to be a corruption of the Native American word wuchak<\/i> \u2013 the name in no way references the rodents\u2019 biology or behaviour. In fact, they have very little to do with wood.<\/p>\n
In fact a woodchuck\u2019s\u00a0 diets are not tree-based, but consist largely of plants, grasses, fruits and occasional invertebrates. Neither do they make nests of wood, preferring to dig large and elaborate burrows underground.<\/p>\n
These burrows were put to service in 1988 to answer the famous riddle: how much wood would a woodchuck chuck, if a woodchuck could chuck wood?<\/p>\n
US Fish and Wildlife worker Richard Thomas theorised that a woodchuck able to excavate a typical 9m-long burrow from the earth could (should it be inclined) move the equivalent volume of wood. It equates to about 317kg \u201con a good day, with the wind at his back.\u201d<\/p>\n
Main image: Groundhog at\u00a0Laval University\u00a0campus,\u00a0Quebec, Canada. \u00a9 Simon Pierre Barrette <\/a>\/Creative Commons<\/a><\/em><\/p><\/body><\/html>\n By BBC Wildlife Magazine Published: Friday, 14 October 2022 at 12:00 am The word \u2018woodchuck\u2019 (another name for a groundhog) is thought to be a corruption of the Native American word wuchak \u2013 the name in no way references the rodents\u2019 biology or behaviour. In fact, they have very little to do with wood. In […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":21516,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"< 1"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/10\/how-much-wood-could-a-woodchuck-chuck-scaled.jpg",2560,1707,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/10\/how-much-wood-could-a-woodchuck-chuck-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/10\/how-much-wood-could-a-woodchuck-chuck-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/10\/how-much-wood-could-a-woodchuck-chuck-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/10\/how-much-wood-could-a-woodchuck-chuck-1024x683.jpg",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/10\/how-much-wood-could-a-woodchuck-chuck-1536x1024.jpg",1536,1024,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/10\/how-much-wood-could-a-woodchuck-chuck-2048x1365.jpg",2048,1365,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By BBC Wildlife Magazine Published: Friday, 14 October 2022 at 12:00 am The word \u2018woodchuck\u2019 (another name for a groundhog) is thought to be a corruption of the Native American word wuchak \u2013 the name in no way references the rodents\u2019 biology or behaviour. In fact, they have very little to do with wood. In…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/21515"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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![Creative Commons<\/a><\/em><\/p><\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By BBC Wildlife Magazine Published: Friday, 14 October 2022 at 12:00 am The word \u2018woodchuck\u2019 (another name for a groundhog) is thought to be a corruption of the Native American word wuchak \u2013 the name in no way references the rodents\u2019 biology or behaviour. In fact, they have very little to do with wood. In […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":21516,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"< 1"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/10\/how-much-wood-could-a-woodchuck-chuck-scaled.jpg",2560,1707,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/10\/how-much-wood-could-a-woodchuck-chuck-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/10\/how-much-wood-could-a-woodchuck-chuck-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/10\/how-much-wood-could-a-woodchuck-chuck-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/10\/how-much-wood-could-a-woodchuck-chuck-1024x683.jpg",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/10\/how-much-wood-could-a-woodchuck-chuck-1536x1024.jpg",1536,1024,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/10\/how-much-wood-could-a-woodchuck-chuck-2048x1365.jpg",2048,1365,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By BBC Wildlife Magazine Published: Friday, 14 October 2022 at 12:00 am The word \u2018woodchuck\u2019 (another name for a groundhog) is thought to be a corruption of the Native American word wuchak \u2013 the name in no way references the rodents\u2019 biology or behaviour. In fact, they have very little to do with wood. In…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/21515"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}](\""https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/File:Marmota_monax_UL_04.jpg"\"){kind=link}