Midwinter records of the woodchuck in western Pennsylvania [Enregistrements mi-hiver de la marmotte des bois dans l’est de Pennsylvania].

Résumé

In Summarizing the information then available on the hibernation of marmots, Arthur H. Howell, in his "Revision of the American Marmots" (North Amer. Fauna no. 37, 1915), gives extreme dates of occurrence of the woodchuck in New York as February 22 and November 2O, and at the base of Roan Mountain, North Carolina, as February 7 and October 23. As a search of the JournaL of Mammalogy and other pertinent litterature fails to reveal any extension of these extremes, the following midwinter record of Marmota monax monax (Linnaeus) in western Pennsylvania is considered worthy of publication. On January l, 1928, despite the blizzard that was blowing at the time, Richard J. Freni and Paul C. Ross went out to examine a trap that they had set four days before (i.e., December 27) in a hole in a sheep pasture near Sandy Lake, Mercer County, Pennsylvania. To their astonishment the trap held a medium-sized "ground hog," frozen to death. Upon first thought it seems nothing short of amazing that a woodchuck should venture out in the severe weather that ushered in the new year in western Pennsylvania. It will be noted, however, that the trap was set on December 27 and reference to official weather charts shows that the temperature started to rise after Christmas and on December 30 reached as high as 56°F. at Pittsburgh. It is very probable, therefore, that the animal came out during this warm spell and had been in the trap a day or two when it was found.