Mark bikes to work along the river, and as he approaches the area by the locks near Parliament Hill he often spotted a very mysterious creature: a black groundhog.
For awhile he thought he was dreaming, or that his coffeeless fatigue-fuelled eyeballs were playing tricks on him. What was this black THING loping across the bit of lawn? Was it really a groundhog, or something else, like a very fat cat or a very odd beaver? Was it really black? If so, why is it black? IS THIS A REBEL GROUNDHOG??!
What tormented him even more was that he was never able to get a clear view. UNTIL NOW.
And so I present to you a rare example of a black groundhog, possibly the only one of its kind in Ottawa. (It’s quite handy there happened to be a brown one on the scene for comparison, don’t you think?) Check it out:
Of course I had to find out why this guy has a black coat. It’s a result of something called melanism. According to Wikipedia, this is “an undue development of dark-colored pigment in the skin or its appendages and is the opposite of albinism.” It’s also the reason we have black squirrels here in Ottawa. Our black squirrels are actually melanistic Eastern Grey Squirrels. Bet you didn’t know that!
In may also interest you to know that the groundhog is also known as a woodchuck. This is something I never understood, mostly because of that old tongue-twister: “How much wood can a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood.” Groundhogs don’t chuck wood! Anyway, you can read more about them at Hinterland Who’s Who. There’s a video too! If you grew up in Canada you will remember that opening music in a split second.
