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The Groundhog Watchers
One spring morning in 2003, Susan Sam looked out the kitchen window of her home in rural Imlay City, Michigan, and saw a small brown animal on the lawn. Not recognizing the creature, she called over her husband, Joe. He identified it as a groundhog. Having heard stories about their destructiveness, Joe suggested they get rid of it.Susan, however, was curious. “Why don’t we watch for a while?” she suggested. “Because so far, I’m not seeing anything horrible.” Joe agreed that they could keep an eye on the groundhog and see what happened. They named her Wilhelmina. Not long afterward, they saw Wilhelmina carry a litter of still-fuzzy babies to a burrow near their sun porch. Two weeks after that, the groundhog family emerged; the Sams, again looking out their window, were enthralled. Twenty years later, they’re still watching.
With Joe’s help, Susan has chronicled the lives of generations of groundhogs who made a home beside her own. She’s become an unlikely champion for creatures often regarded as vermin, killed for sport or because many people reach for a gun—or a trap or dry ice—rather than building a fence or filling in a hole. Their efforts have yielded a uniquely detailed, eye-level portrayal, perhaps even adding to what scientists know about the life history of a species at once widespread yet obscure.
Now, “obscure” might seem an odd term for groundhogs. They’re the only animal with an American holiday, and though Groundhog Day is tongue-in-cheek nowadays, it’s still celebrated. They’re considered common throughout Canada and the eastern United States, where they’re capable of dwelling in backyards and in-between spaces of suburban sprawl. Most residents in their range have at least glimpsed a groundhog eating by a roadside.
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The Groundhog Watchers
Meet Susan and Joe. Their daily observations of the groundhogs in their yard are making science history.
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