SAVANNAH - With Punxsutawney Phil already underground, afraid of his own shadow, Carol Stokes-Cawley, education director at the Montezuma Audubon Center, exposed the truth about the famous “weatherman” rodent.

While a live groundhog was hard to come by, the center had its own stuffed resident, Montezuma Monty, decked out in a top hat and black tie for Groundhog Day.

“No self-respecting woodchuck would come out on Feb. 2,” said Margaret Cook, Audubon Center assistant.

The truth about groundhogs is that they are one of the few true hibernators who hibernate from October to May, Stokes-Cawley said.

Interesting facts about groundhogs include: They move about 700 pounds of dirt to tunnel about three to four feet underground. They don't drink water but get it from plants eaten. They live from six to eight years. When they go into hibernation, they are fat and their body temperature drops to 40 degrees. They emerge eight months later, skinny.

Foxes and coyotes love to munch on woodchucks. Humans have also been known to eat them, probably in a stew. Most people just consider them destructive rodents because of their tunneling. They are also difficult to get rid of.

“The stuff they sell in retail stores doesn't work,” Cook said.

In addition to Monty the groundhog, the Audubon Center's gallery of birds and other creatures, mounted by a local taxidermist, allows close-up observation that would otherwise be impossible for visitors, Stokes-Cawley said.

Art students sometimes draw the various mounted animals during other programs at the Center.

“That way they can view the animal from different angles and get some idea of what it really looks like,” she said.

But people want to come up and pet the mounted fur-bearing animals, which reduces their longevity.

Cawley displayed an interactive game she uses to frame questions about biology, adaptations, habitat, folklore and the food chain.

A question under adaptations with the answer “whistle” was: “What sound does a woodchuck make when alarmed?” A question on habitat with the answer, “deforestation and agriculture” was: “Why has the woodchuck population grown since the Europeans settled in America?”

Upcoming programs at the Audubon Center include “Owls in Love,” one of the Home School Nature Series, exploring how owls show their interest in each other, how to identify New York owls, and what they eat. The center has a number of owl pellets that students can dissect in order to find bones of whatever the owls ate and regurgitated.

Stokes-Cawley said that home-school groups have really exceeded her expectations. She advertised the fall program six weeks before it started and got thirty instead of the expected 15 as news of the program traveled.

Children are now enrolled from Red Creek, Savannah, Waterloo, Seneca Falls, Skaneateles, Syracuse, and Watkins Glen for the two-hour programs on Thursdays from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. or 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. No spaces are available in the morning, but a few spots are still left in the afternoon.

Staff writer Kathleen Barran can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 238 or kathleen.barran@lee.net

To learn more

The Montezuma Audubon Center's winter hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Friday

For more information, call 365-3580 or visit friendsofmontezuma.org