The affectionate kiss of the groundhogs

* The author is part of the community of readers of La Vanguardia.

Oliver Thansan
Oliver Thansan
30 April 2023 Sunday 04:51
13 Reads
The affectionate kiss of the groundhogs

* The author is part of the community of readers of La Vanguardia

In The Photos of the Readers of La Vanguardia we can observe in detail how the marmots greet each other with their noses or kiss them good morning when they leave their burrows, in Berguedà.

In the image you can see the moment they greet each other, a greeting that consists of rubbing their noses. Groundhogs are large rodents, the heaviest members of the squirrel family, with enlarged claws well adapted for digging tunnels where they winter for about seven months.

With late spring they have been out of their burrows for days. Thanks to this I have been able to capture these affectionate scenes in the middle of the meadow among the Berguedà landscape.

Groundhogs prefer an open habitat that allows them to spot predators from a distance and run for cover. They live in a family structure. A family can have between 10 and 20 young, which live with their parents until maturity.

Groundhogs enjoy socializing with each other. Regardless of age, they groom each other and greet each other by rubbing noses.

Of course, although they are sociable with other members of the family, they tend to be very fierce against predators and other strangers that invade their territory.