Sometimes I wonder why certain animals were added to the mix; groundhogs are one of them. I mean, they’re not really FOOD for anything else, and all they are is destructive to buildings and food plots.
But, you know, it wasn’t my call back when all of this was being designed, LOL!
Sometimes I wonder why certain animals were added to the mix; .... they’re not really FOOD for anything else
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
My brother was in a deer stand a couple of years ago on another farm and a large coyote came across the field in front of him carrying a groundhog - he got a picture of it & showed it to me. Sometimes, a predator will catch them! I’d rather have coyotes than groundhogs.
A first cousin of mine just died Monday - her former husband would hunt groundhogs on her mom’s place & then give the cleaned/dressed ‘hog’ to her mom to cook (my aunt, an excellent cook, did it, but wasn’t happy about it). He liked young ones.
The damage the groundhogs have done around our barn/sheds is just terrible. My dad has been getting Quikcrete & putting it down the holes. I think I spotted a fresh hole from this latest groundhog & that’s where I’ll set the trap.
As for ‘animals’ in the mix that seem to not have much value to us, I saw a ‘meme’ lately from someone in AK ..... “why oh why didn’t Noah swat the two mosquitoes before they got on the Ark?”
On a totally different topic - waiting for Elsa to arrive. We should get 2-3 inches of rain so I did not water the garden last night ... which means we will probably get a ‘sprinkle’ instead. I mowed like a fiend late yesterday, trying to get all the “lush” grass spots cut down (they’d gotten fairly high) - once the grass gets thick/high, it takes forever to dry & chokes out the mower. I had the mower slow down a few times going through some spots, but the worst is done & I can tackle the rest this weekend, after Elsa’s rain/winds clear off (should be after midnight tonight).
https://sites.uwm.edu/badgerresearch/badger-facts/
"Badgers are opportunistic carnivores and will eat almost anything under the size of a woodchuck (groundhog). Badgers are especially adept at capturing burrowing mammals such as woodchucks, ground squirrels, and gophers. Other food items include voles, mice, ground-nesting birds, insects, and carrion."
I am not going to suggest that people in Wisconsin just need more state protected badgers to take care of the woodchuck (and small rodent) problem. I do not know what will then be done as a result of the broken cow leg problem because of all the new badger burrows. As always nature has solutions and in this case its probably wolves. (Which are also state protected, at least in places like Madison with a low gun/capita ratio and anti-farmer agenda.)
Badgers will also take care of the problem their burrows cause if they can get a mound up over the carrion cow before the wolves find out.