Page 3 - Kind News, Jr. Jan/Feb 2021, Teacher Guide

ANSWER KEY DO ACTIVITIES
ONLINE AT
KINDNEWS.ORG! 1
B
U 2 H
“Winter Words” Puzzle answers FROM PAGE 3
R I
3 F R B
ACROSS 4 5
O M N I V O R E S
4. Omnivores eat both plants and animals.
6. Painful tangles in fur are called matting. R O W R
A C N
DOWN 6 M A T T I N G T A

1. To dig a hole is to burrow. E U T
2. A way animals slow down for the winter is to hibernate. R R E
3. Finders of food are called foragers. S N
5. Nocturnal means active at night. A
L

Critter Clues FROM PAGE 7
Our mystery critter is the groundhog. Although they
are best known for the superstition that they can predict the
coming of springtime, these furry creatures are unique for
many other reasons!
Groundhogs can be found all over North America.
They are omnivores but eat mainly vegetables. Aside
from raising their babies, groundhogs are mostly solitary
opposite page: redrover. this page, from top: amy moore/pixabay; raja: bryan huff.
creatures. Despite this, groundhogs do communicate to
warn each other of danger. They emit a high-pitched, shrill
sound to do so, earning them the nickname “whistle-pig!”
Groundhogs are “true” hibernators. They rely on body fat
to make it through the winter! A groundhog’s heartbeat and
body temperature drop dramatically during hibernation. If the
weather is colder, they will wait longer to emerge in the spring.
It’s possible that this contributed to the tradition of celebrating
Groundhog Day, but it can also be traced back to German settlers
who believed that animals like groundhogs or badgers could predict the
weather, and other European settlers who thought that if the sun was shining
on February 2, there would be six more weeks of winter.
Although they spend most of their time alone, groundhogs still build extensive burrows for their families.
Their burrows can be over 60 feet long and have many different chambers and entrances. Groundhogs are not
considered a threatened species, but farmers and gardeners often see them as pests because they eat crops.
Farmers also worry about the impact of groundhog burrows on
farms: machines can break when they run over the mounds,
and horses can trip over them. There are many humane ways of Where’s Raja?
resolving conflicts with groundhogs, however, such as building high
fences. For more information, visit humanesociety.org/resources/ Raja is hiding
on page 3!
what-do-about-woodchucks.