A handler holds aloft Phil the groundhog during festivities in Punxsutawney, PA. (Photo: SchultzLabs/flickr)

What does any of this have to do with wildlife? Well, besides the obvious Punxsutawney Phil reference (he’s the “official” groundhog) it’s a pretty good analogy for what’s going on with the Keystone XL pipeline because, once again, Congress is trying to short-circuit environmental reviews and build the [dang] thing. This time, our old buddies Senator David Vitter (R-Louisiana) and Rep. Lee Terry (R-Nebraska) are introducing yet another pair of bills in Congress that would mandate construction of the 2,000 mile tar sands pipeline, skipping over President Obama and giving a big gift to the oil industry.

If at first you don’t succeed…

These bills mark at least the sixth (and seventh) attempts by Congress to cram Keystone XL down our throats, joining legislation pushed by:

• Sen. John Hoeven (R-ND) – January 2012
• Rep. Ted Poe (R-TX) – January 2012
• Rep. Denny Rehberg (R-MT) – December 2011
• Senators Richard Lugar (R-IN), Hoeven and Vitter (again)- November 2011
• Rep. Terry (again)- May 2011

All of these bills started from the same basic premise: “We’ve studied Keystone enough! Let’s put it in the ground!” This is a truly terrible premise to start from, considering the inadequacy of the studies that have been performed to date — we don’t even have comprehensive information on how much the project would raise global climate emissions, which is like rating Bill Murray’s career based solely on the awful fever dream that was the “Garfield” movie. (And speaking of career ratings, my favorite sentence of the year has to be this gem from Public Policy Polling, which found that “Congress is now less popular than root canals, NFL replacement referees, head lice, the rock band Nickelback, colonoscopies, carnies, traffic jams, cockroaches, Donald Trump, France, Genghis Khan, used-car salesmen and Brussel sprouts.)

Tar sands industrial complex in Alberta, Canada (Photo: Kris Krug)

Now, nobody is shocked that Sen. Vitter and Rep. Terry are pushing pro-Big Oil policies; it’s sort of what they’re known for. But that doesn’t make it any less frustrating, because Congress keeps resurrecting the issue despite Americans’ desire to move toward a clean energy economy — in fact, a recent voter poll from the Yale Project on Climate Change Communication shows overwhelming support across the political spectrum for renewables like wind and solar, as well as the belief that the government needs to act to combat the climate crisis.

President Obama understands what’s at stake, if you take his inaugural address at face value:

We, the people, still believe that our obligations as Americans are not just to ourselves, but to all posterity. We will respond to the threat of climate change, knowing that the failure to do so would betray our children and future generations.

It would be hard to put it any stronger, and a lot of people have been asking what that means for his decision on Keystone, which will go a long way toward shaping Obama’s climate legacy. This decision is way beyond mere symbolism: the oil industry is desperate for pipelines to export tar sands to new markets, so Keystone really is a huge factor in how fast and how large Canadian mining operations will grow.

Tens of thousands expected at massive climate rally

If Keystone XL gets built, we won’t need Punxsutawney Phil to predict the weather for us in years to come: the project would lock us into a bleak future of escalating oil consumption, degraded habitat, and a climate that is hotter and less hospitable for people and wildlife around the globe. We need Obama to stand up to Big Oil and their friends in Congress, by saying NO to the Keystone pipeline. JOIN US on February 17th to protect wildlife from climate change, when tens of thousands of Americans will rally at the White House in Washington, DC to protest tar sands and demand action on climate. RSVP HERE!

You can help! Tell President Obama to reject Keystone XL and dirty tar sands oil.

And he didn't leave to play in California next year. (Wikimedia Commons | Sector001)

It’s the only thing about the Cards’ season that was stranger than Kyle Lohse becoming a solid starter.

It’s a squirrel.

The card commemorates Game 4 of the National League Division Series, when a bushy-tailed rodent scampered in front of the hitter, Cardinals’ utilityman Skip Schumaker, just before a pitch. Umpire Angel Hernandez called it a ball, and Phillies pitcher Roy Oswalt and manager Charlie Manuel argued, because everyone knows that a squirrel on the field means an automatic timeout, right?

Anyway, the so-called ‘Rally Squirrel’ became a folk hero in St. Louis (Twitter account here; 27,000 followers) and the most famous baseball-adjacent small mammal since David Eckstein.

With Squirrel Appreciation Day just past and Groundhog Day already upon us, we thought it was a good time to salute Rally Squirrel and take a look at some other notable baseball rodents.

Unless otherwise linked, all nickname information is from the Don Zminda’s “From Abba Dabba to Zorro: The World of Baseball Nicknames.”

Orval Overall had a 2.23 career ERA. (Wikimedia Commons | EIC)

1) Roy Sievers, ‘Squirrel’

Slow, slugging former Senators’ great supposedly got this nickname as a basketball player in high school because he “(hung) around the basket like a squirrel around a tree.” Though a citation eludes me, I believe he supped on nuts, seeds and cones throughout the spring as well, hoarding and burying food so that he might revisit his caches years later.

2) Orval Overall, ‘The Big Groundhog’

Early 20^th century Cubs’ pitcher got this nickname because he was an agriculture student. Also: had a dense grey undercoat and digging claws. Alas, groundhogs may now be emerging earlier due to global warming, to their detriment—even worse than if Orval had reported for Spring Training in the middle of a Chicago blizzard (tip goes to Miles Grant for that tidbit as well as parts of this post).

3) Billy Shipke, ‘Muskrat Bill’

Old timer was almost my height/weight twin, and nobody knows what made him muskrat-like. Perhaps his well-adapted swimming tail. Though even that would probably not have helped him escape calamities like the Kalamazoo River oil spill.

Pictured: Billy Shipke during Spring Training. (flickr via Wikimedia Commons | Linda Tanner)

4) Cliff Melton, ‘Mickey Mouse’

Former New York Giant was born 100 years ago last month and had big ears. I’m surprised there aren’t more nicknames in this vein.

5) Whitey Herzog, ‘The White Rat’

Famous buzzcut Hall of Fame manager got this name for his extremely light blond hair. It’s also possible that his distinctly rat-like empathy contributed to his ability to rally a ballclub.

6) Gary Gaetti, ‘The Rat’

Slugging third-baseman got his Muroidean moniker for obvious reasons. And by that, I meant that he was omnivorous and a good burrower. What did you think I meant?

7) Don Zimmer, ‘The Gerbil’

Submitted without comment.

Honorable mentions go to to ‘Bunny’ Anthony Brief and Rabbit Maranville since rabbits aren’t true rodents but are often confused as such and often referred to together as members of the same ‘superclass.’

To learn more about squirrels, check out this blog post or the red squirrel page in our Wildlife Library.  You can find tips for sending your kids to ‘Squirrel School’ at Big Backyard.

Did I miss anyone? Tweet which of these baseball rodents (including Rally Squirrel) is your favorite using the hashtag #baseballrodents.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Hmmm…I’d like to think that groundhogs wouldn’t be that annoying. Here’s what I believe they’d say:

Please don’t ask me how much wood I chuck.” – Groundhogs are also known as woodchucks. However, “woodchuck” comes from an Algonquian name for the animal, wuchak. They don’t actually toss wood.

“How you doin’?” – Contrary to popular belief, when male groundhogs emerge in February after their three-month-long hibernation, they aren’t checking on the timing of spring. Nope. They’re looking for some love.

“I’m cool as a cucumber.” – While hibernating, a woodchuck’s body temperature can drop from about 99 degrees to as low as 37. (Humans go into mild hypothermia when their body temperature drops a mere 3 degrees, lose consciousness at 82 degrees and face death below 70 degrees.)

“Where’s the salad bar?”- During warm seasons, a groundhog may pack in more than a pound of vegetation at one sitting, which is much like a 150-pound man scarfing down a 15-pound steak.

Groundhog enjoying my container garden

“Michael Phelps has nothing on me.” – In addition to being great at burrowing, groundhogs are stellar swimmers. They’re also expert tree climbers, especially when chased.

And, last but not least…

“Yes, I do like ‘Groundhog Day’, the movie.” – Well, who doesn’t love a flick starring both Punxsutawney Phil and Bill Murray?

Want to Dig Deeper?

The Truth about Groundhog Day

10 Things You May Not Know About Groundhogs

On Groundhog Day: Ten Things to Know about These Surprising Creatures

Eat Your Phil

Here are ten things you may not have known about America’s “woodchucks.”

1. The name “woodchuck” does not come from these creatures tossing wood around or from just being woodland dwellers but rather it comes from an Algonquian (possibly Narragansett) name for the animal, wuchak.
2. The average animal weighs between 4-9 pounds but some (in places where there is alfalfa farming, for example) have been known to reach 30 pounds which would make them “woodchunks.”
3. Many people are surprised to discover that groundhogs are accomplished swimmers and (when pursued by a predator or reaching for a snack) are excellent tree climbers.
4. When they observe something that might be a threat, they will rise up on their hind legs and let out a clear warning whistle to family members much in the same way as prairie dogs in the West.
5. The average wild groundhog will live for two to three years.  One animal was actually known to have lived for 22 years in captivity in Wiarton, Ontario (the iconic “Wiarton Willie”).  The U.S. version of Willie is Punxsutawney Phil (from Pennsylvania).  Legend has it, from the local Punxsutawney townspeople, that Phil is over 100 years old.   Hmm.
6. Groundhogs hibernate for three to six months each year and, prior to going underground, will accumulate a half inch layer of fat to hold them over.  An adult animal will eat about one third of its body weight per day in late summer which makes them a true challenge for many gardeners.
7. Groundhogs are champion diggers.  On average, an animal will remove about 700 pounds of soil to make a burrow.  The burrow is designed with several rooms and extends for 25 to 35 feet.  One to three entrances are included.  Farmers have been known to say that a groundhog “eats to give himself the strength to dig holes, and then dig holes to give himself an appetite.”
8. In Delaware, Ohio, a groundhog burrow actually ended up uncovering a Native American archaeological site.  It is called the Ufferman Site from the Woodland period and the groundhogs have excavated bones, pottery and stone tools.
9. The first official Groundhog Day was celebrated on February 2, 1886 in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania.  As indicated above, this event gave rise to the annual observation of the groundhog activities of “Punxsutawney Phil.”  Ontario, Canada’s town of Wiarton has a similar iconic weather predictor called “Wiarton Willie.”
10. The “Groundhog Day” legend comes from German tradition when, on Candlemas Day, people would tell a tale of hedgehogs or badgers serving as a test for the remaining duration of winter.  The first, recorded U.S. reference was made Feb. 4, 1841 in Morgantown Pennsylvania when storekeeper James Morris’ diary made this entry:  “last Tuesday, the 2nd, was Candlemas Day, the day on which, according to the Germans, the Groundhog peeps out of his winter quarters and if he sees his shadow he pops back for another six weeks nap, but if the day be cloudy he remains out, as the weather is to be moderate.”

At the National Wildlife Federation’s offices in Reston, Virginia, we have several resident groundhogs.  They pretty much have the run of the place in the summer months and can been seen sunning on the rocks by our pond or climbing the bushes in our wildlife garden for leafy snacks.  We try to talk them into waiting until the plants in the garden have grown up a bit more but they are less patient.  In all, groundhogs are amazing creatures that are full of surprises and certainly seek their own counsel.

A woodchuck, or groundhog, during the warm months of grassy abundance.

The groundhog, also known as the woodchuck or the mouse bear (because it looks like a miniature bear when sitting upright), first won its reputation as a weather prognosticator in 1886, when the editor of western Pennsylvania’s Punxsutawney Spirit newspaper, one Clymer Freas, published a report that local groundhogs had not seen their shadows that day, signaling an early spring.

This story begat Punxsutawney Phil, the legendary woodchuck weathercreature, which begat Ground Hog Day and the familiar idea that Phil (and his namesake successors down through the years) can predict the perpetuation of winter.

It is likely that the story of Phil is based on European beliefs that badgers and hedgehogs can provide signals about the future; lacking those species in his area, old Clymer substituted the local animal that most resembles a badger or a hedgehog.

But the groundhog is much more than a weather rodent. It’s also a real animal with a real life.

Here are 10 things you may not know about this roly-poly rodent:

1. Groundhogs are among the few animals that are true hibernators, fattening up in the warm seasons and snoozing for most of three months during the chill times.
2. While hibernating, a woodchuck’s body temperature can drop from about 99 degrees to as low as 37 (Humans go into mild hypothermia when their body temperature drops a mere 3 degrees, lose consciousness at 82 degrees and face death below 70 degrees).
3. The  heart rate of a hibernating woodchuck slows from about 80 beats per minute to 5.
4. Breathing slows from around 16 breaths per minute to as few as 2.
5. During hibernation—150 days without eating—a woodchuck will lose no more than a fourth of its body weight thanks to all the energy saved by the lower metabolism.
6. During warm seasons, a groundhog may pack in more than a pound of vegetation at one sitting, which is much like a 150-pound man scarfing down a 15-pound steak.
7. To accommodate its bodacious appetite, woodchucks grow upper and lower incisors that can withstand wear and tear because they grow about a sixteenth of an inch each week.
8. If properly aligned, woodchuck upper and lower incisors grind away at each other with every bite, keeping suitably short; when not in good order, they may miss one another and just keep growing until they look like the tusks on a wild boar; if too long, a woodchuck’s upper incisors can impale the lower jaw, with fatal results.
9. Woodchuck burrows, which the animals dig as much as 6 feet deep, can meander underground for 20 feet or more, usually with two entrances but in some cases with nearly a dozen.
10. Burrows provide groundhogs with their chief means of evading enemies, because the rotund little guys (just before hibernation, a hefty woodchuck may tip the scales at 14 pounds) are too slow to escape most predators in a dead heat: the rodents have a top speed of only 8 mph, while a hungry fox may hit 25 mph.

Bonus Fact: Although groundhogs may not be the best weather predictors, they do in fact emerge from dens in early February. This is the practice of males as they rouse themselves to wander around their 2- to 3-acre territories in search of burrows belonging to females, which the males will enter and where they may spend the night. Research suggests that no mating takes place at this time; the visits probably just let the animals get to know one another so that they can get right down to the business of breeding when they emerge for good in March. Outside of the mating season, woodchucks are solitary, except for females with young, which usually are born in early April.

Male groundhogs wake up after three months of hibernation to check out the available pool of ladies within their territory. They select a female with whom they spend the night, and this sleepover acts as a first date, allowing the groundhogs time to get to know each other before the official start of mating season the following month. During these meet and greet sessions, contact is confined to rubbing noses – there’s no going “all the way.”

After scoping out two or three females, the male groundhog returns to his burrow to sleep again until March, dreaming of the hotties he has just met. When he awakes and revisits each of the females, the earlier slumber parties allow the woodchucks to skip the small talk and get right down to the business of breeding.

Here’s a round-up of recent news on how climate change is affecting wildlife:

• Has Punxsutawney Phil been predicting climate change?
• Are the seasons shifting? The highest summer and lowest winter temperatures have been happening an average of two days earlier.
• Antarctica is warming faster than previously thought.
• Deep sea life is being impacted by climate change.
• Climate change forces tropical insects to higher elevations.
• Forests are in decline as temperatures rise.
• Climate change effects are irreversible according to new study.

More Groundhog Trivia:

• Groundhogs are rodents in the Sciuridae (squirrel) family that go by several other names including woodchuck and whistlepig.
• The name woodchuck comes from a Cree Indian word, wuchak, which was used for several different animals of similar size and color, including other marmots.
• This very vocal animal carries the nickname “whistle-pig” for the various hisses, squeals, growls, barks and teeth chattering noises it emits.
• How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood? Based on the typical burrow a woodchuck digs, a scientist at Cornell University estimated the answer would be close to 700 pounds.
• The elaborate architecture of a woodchuck burrow with lengths of 20-30 feet, include spy-holes, a toilet chamber, nest and nursery.
• During hibernation, the body temperature of a woodchuck drops from 97°F (36°C) to less than 40°F (4°C). Its breathing slows to once every six minutes, and its heartbeat slows from 100 beats per minute to four.
• Groundhog Day developed from the European tradition of Imbolc and Candlemas Day, marking the day between Winter Solstice and Spring Equinox. On that date, good weather meant more winter was on the way, bad weather meant the end of the cold season. This tradition was first linked to the appearance of the groundhog February 2, 1886, when Punxsutawney Spirit editor Clymer Freas reported the furry creature had not seen his shadow, thus an early spring was in the forecast.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released a report saying it is “very likely” (at least a 90 percent chance) that human activities are causing the warming of the planet that has occurred since 1950.

The report honed sea level rise projections and clarified the link between global warming and droughts, storms and other extreme climate events–making it even clearer that time is running out for wildlife, whose habitat will suffer from many of these changes and challenges. See “Polar Bears at Risk from Global Warming.”

The Friday news cycle also included the furry forecaster Punxsutawney Phil, announcing the coming of an early spring. NWF senior scientist Doug Inkley recently pondered Phil’s forecasting track record. Apparently in the first 75 years of the 20th century, Phil cast no shadow only four times, which according to folklore meant an early end to winter. But in just the last 25 years of the century, Phil cast no shadow fully eight times, alerting us that winter was coming to an early end.

Make that nine times.

“…with this year’s warm winter, which some experts pin on global warming, biologists say groundhogs and their hibernating brethren might rise closer and closer to Groundhog Day each year as Earth’s climate changes,” (Sara Goudarzi, LiveScience, 02/01/07).