Sunday, October 14, 2007

Kickout at Den Hole





This groundog excavated a lot of small stones to dig this pipe. The den entrance itself is a classic -- on a fence line, with the old wire grid fallen down over half the hole in order to make it harder for a predator to follow the groundhog to earth and/or dig it up.

Any fox, dog or coyote chasing this groundhog is going to have to slow down and pull up at the den entrace; something the groundog will not have to do due to its familiarity with the entrance.
These kinds of obstructions at den entrances are so common they are clearly an intentional design feature. To read more observations about den construction, see >> The Architecture of Burrows
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