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  • BBC Wildlife Magazine

    Q&A

    Apr 08, 2021 4 minutes

    We solve your wildlife mysteries.

    Email your questions to wildquestions@immediate.co.uk

    More amazing facts at discoverwildlife.com

    BEHAVIOUR

    How much wood does a woodchuck chuck?

    The word ‘woodchuck’ (another name for a groundhog) is thought to be a corruption of the Native American word wuchak – the name in no way references the rodents’ biology or behaviour. In fact, they have very little to do with wood. Their diets are not tree-based, but consist largely of plants, grasses, fruits and occasional invertebrates. Neither do they make nests of wood, preferring to dig large and elaborate burrows underground.

    These burrows were put to service in 1988 to answer the famous riddle: how much wood would a woodchuck chuck, if a woodchuck could chuck wood? US Fish and Wildlife worker Richard Thomas theorised

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