Groundhogs are starting to disappear for the year… and what happens to their bodies underground is pretty wild.
During deep hibernation, a groundhog’s body temperature can drop from around 99°F to as low as 37°F. Their heart rate can fall from roughly 80 beats per minute to only 4-5, and their breathing can slow to about one breath every few minutes.
They’ll spend the winter surviving almost entirely on the fat they worked so hard to pack on all summer.
So when you stop seeing those chunky little bodies waddling around soon, they aren’t just sleeping. Their entire body has essentially shifted into energy-saving mode until spring.
Stanley here will be staying awake with us - as he has epilepsy and needs medications daily to keep him healthy. By controlling his environment, we can stop the signals that he would normally get to tell him it’s time to hibernate - but his wild friends are getting ready to clock out for the season.
I don’t share a lot of pics with humans in them, firstly because I’m here for people to admire our wildlife around the world rather than the humans, and secondly because just because they share photos publicly of themselves, I don’t like to assume that inherently gives me the right to share that photo wherever I see fit.
But I also enjoy building the communities I participate in, and will, upon rare occasions, throw a bone out there to those that haven’t been lured in by the beauty of the natural world and may more easily accept the beauty of our world and hopefully be drawn thereafter to the wild animals.
For the average hetero man, getting involved with animal care could be much like when my brother took childhood development in high school to be in a class with all the girls all day. Thankfully, as possibly an unintended side effect, he seems to have grown into a good father for his daughter. Animal rescue is done by over 90% women, so if one cares for the health and well-being of wildlife, one may find they are, by coincidence, surrounded by some of the most loving and caring people the entire time, and to me, that makes all of them quite beautiful people to me. The smells, injuries, bites, and bad weather would make this not a great opportunity to pursue solely to be around attractive people, but it can be a perk if one sees it as such.
I’m happily married, so there is no benefit in that regard for myself, but I have made some wonderful female friends there easier than I had ever imagined. Everyone who walks through those clinic doors over and over is going to be a beautiful person inside, which should be probably the top priority to us all anyway.
So, I am glad some of you enjoy the occasional photo that may happen to include a broadly aesthetically pleasing lady or man, but I hope at least some of that fascination is subconsciously seeing what a kind, caring, and giving human being they are because they are sacrificing to make this world a better place, one injured or lost animal at a time. If people keep being cool like that, I will continue to show the occasional human! I trust you guys are mature like that. 🙂
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