What Am I?

During my six mile hike / training walk Wednesday after work, I spotted this creature in Maymont.  Maymont has a number of captive creatures on display, but this mammal was wild and uncaged.  I bet you can guess his or her identity.

I am, I state, a herbivore:

Love tender plants, and nothing more

I eat like crazy, put on fat;

Winter arrives in nothing flat

And winter I will spend in sleep

In my burrow, safe and deep

Beneath the snows I hibernate

For spring's fresh green I will await

But humans state I have my day:

In February, so you say

You say I can predict the weather

Emerging from the earth's nether

On just this special winter day

To see my shadow, with dismay

And winter will last six weeks more

While deep beneath the ground I snore

I think

you have

enough

clues now

to guess

correctly

Scroll

D

O

W

N

for the

answer:

How much wood can a woodchuck chuck?

Did you guess right? Were you in luck?

I am pretty sure that woodchucks, also known as groundhogs, don't have the power to predict or change the weather, although they can awaken on a warm winter day, come outside for a bit, then return to hibernation.