Groundhog Hibernation Starting Soon
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.
38 replies
Nice marmot
They always look pretty cute when I peak in on them. They are one of the rabies vector species, so I haven't been able to work with them thus far, but my antibody test came back good after my recent booster, so next year I should be able to get some experience working with them. We had a cute little baby we raised this year named Meatball.
Underappreciated comment
I wonder if not hibernating extends or shortens a groundhogs lifespan. How long until we can CRISPR ourselves a hibernation gene and take the winter off? Huge cost savings
It seems the main idea is to extend their lives by avoiding the caloric needs of maintaining their body temperature throughout the winter when it's freezing cold and food is scarce. Much like "hibernating" a laptop will greatly extend its battery life until it can be plugged in by having just the bare minimum of things continuing to use power to preserve its current state.
I'm still a hibernation noob myself, so that is my current understanding.
You would be surprised how many people don’t realize that hibernation still uses battery power.
I was going to say something else, but I went to check myself first as I'm not much of a computer person, and there was so much conflicting information on hibernation using battery or not.
Most sites and comments say there is no power used after the hibernate file is created and saved to the HDD.
Dell and Microsoft's sites both say they use "less power than sleep."
Now I'm not so sure my analogy was correct. Even if hibernate does use zero draw, it's still taking power to create the hibernate save state and to turn the power back on, so I'm not sure if that is what they are referring to or if there are still active components. I saw people say that things like the ethernet port are not active like in sleep when Wake on Ethernet is enabled, so I'm not sure what would still be active after a hibernate file is created. Some comments said there is still natural loss from the battery cells just from the passing of time, but that wouldn't be considered drawing of current, but would still take the battery to zero after enough time.
I feel I've confused myself over something that should be simple. 🤪
If the computer can be “woken up” then the devices, screen lid detector, mouse/keyboard, Ethernet for wake-on-lan, etc. are using power to stay in a state of sensing. So it will always be using some power or you would have to use the power button to wake it up.
Thanks for the explanation!
Groundhogs store jerry cans of gas all summer.
Wat
I got up the motivation to search it up briefly...
A gene cluster called the “fat mass and obesity (FTO) locus” plays an important role in hibernators’ abilities, the researchers found. Intriguingly, humans have these genes too.
https://healthcare.utah.edu/newsroom/news/2025/07/hibernator-superpowers-may-lie-hidden-human-dna
:soon:
Great read, thanks for sharing!
It's bewildering to think of all the amount of hidden genetic tools or junk that we all carry around with us unknowingly.
This isn't extra poundage I'm carrying around! It's a biological tool chest! 😀
Or on the other hand:
Informative, with a cute animal and a smiling girl holding him?
Oh, this is headed for the top of all, all aboard the expesss
I usually don't share people since I want to focus to be on the animals and the work. Thankfully most comments have maintained the spirit of the post.
If people want to admire other things, I wish they would keep it to themselves. If everyone stays respectful, I have much less of an issue sharing photos like this. Rehab work is very hard, filled with long hours, with a ton of stress and heartbreak and barely any time off. Animal rehab would not be a thing without these selfless women. They make up over 90% of all rehab clinic workers. They deserve better than being objectified.
Objectified? Referencing they were smiling is objectification?
Did I somehow reduce their contribution in this world?
Edit: sorry, for presuming on my end
Not you. Some of the other comments. Apologies that was unclear.
Oh good, I am glad you saw this. I was worried you had blocked me before I cleared things up.
I had been kinda upset by some people's comments all day, and I was debating if I should clarify that I wasn't talking about you, but I thought it was clear you were being well intentioned, and I was packing up to leave work and thought it was good enough.
Sorry again. 😔
No worries I’m glad we could clarify haha.
Thanks for all the work you put in to show the efforts of these people and the animals. I know it can get disheartening the way people comment on topics, miscommunications are bound to happen.
Thank you! I try to give everyone some daily positivity to look forward to. I still don't think I've missed a day in the 3-ish years since I became an active poster. Almost everyone loves animals, and I think seeing humans doing good things is more important than ever these days.
But how do I find them while they are hibernating and kill them so they stop turning my back patio into an Indiana Jones "step on the brick and it falls" trap?
first you're going to need a giant spheroidal boulder
He's so cute
I'm glad you like him! Groundhogs are underrated.
It's so good he gets to live a wonderful life surrounded by caring people.
When they hibernate depends on where they are.
I don't know much about hibernation yet, but I know it is not great for things to end up waking too early from hibernation, so there does seem to be a crucial element of timing to when animals begin hibernating. It's something I wish to learn more about!
That veterinarian in the pic is cute af
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. 🙂
Yeah bro. Anyways her
beavergroundhog looks nice too.Was interesting observing the votes on this over the day, lol. First people agreeing generally, now apparently the you-cant-acknowledge-pretty-women-😡-crowd dropped by, even if the comment is in a perfectly respectful manner.
I didn't downvote anyone myself, though I felt a bit embarrassed by some of the comments and debated a number of times on deleting this post.
I can't speak for anyone else, but I will tell you why I am disappointed in some of the comments.
I shared this as it was an informative post, and it had a nice animal in it and someone who is rightfully very proud of their accomplishments.
If someone can't bother to comment about either the animal or the accomplishment of the hundreds of hours of effort this lady and her staff will give the animal to give it a good life when it would otherwise die, but solely comment on her looks and nothing else, it feels like that is the only value you find in all that was shared.
It makes me feel guilty for sharing the photo at all, and that upsets me.
No one will argue that she is an objectively good looking person. I'm going to hazard all of us here have eyes and agree. But if it was a guy or an elderly lady, would these commenters have participated in this post? I looked at all the votes, and I don't recognize any of the names from my thousands of other animals posts, so again, it seems as though they are here for off topic reasons.
The intentions may very well be good in saying these things, but nothing in the post is really about her, at least not anything about her appearance. It just doesn't seem like the most tactful place to bring that up.
I remember Reddit had r/UNBGBBIIVCHIDCTIICBG: Upvoted Not Because Girl, But Because It Is Very Cool; However, I Do Concede That I Initially Clicked Because Girl, but this isn't that. If that's how some people feel, just enjoy the pic, click upvote, and you're good!
I hope that was a helpful and respectful reply. I like to assume no one is being intentionally disrespectful, but I also don't think it's too hard to see how others are not able to be sure of your true intent could see it as such.
Oh dont worry, i was here for him not her lol. But im also not blind was my point, and i dont think you need to feel bad or uncomfortable about posting this with the lady in the pic. Humans gonna human, with all the good and bad. That's not your fault or responsibility
I appreciate you saying all of that.
Cute! Oh look, a Groundhog
I'd wager a guess that's why the picture is not cropped to just the little guy 🙃
Smart social media team.