How many teats does a Groundhog have

peterjc

peterjc

New member
Yesterday I shot one of the biggest Sows I ever shot. I didn't have my digital camera with me so I can't show you, but she had 7 teats. Three of them were up high toward the front leg area, and four were back near the rear end where I always thought they were. She weighed about 16 to 18 lbs. I bet. I will take my camera from now on. I showed her to the farmer and of course he was not worried about the pups that may be in the hole. I just won't have as many targets later. Anyway, is that normal for that many teats and the placement of them???
 
This topic really should have been posted over in the Biology Forum. You would have gotten more replys, and sooner, over there.

A groundhog has four pairs of teats. They also have 3 nipple-like anal glands for secreting musk. Do not count those as "teats".

A groundhog has an average litter size of 5, but can have as many as 10 pups.

Do you know where the name "woodchuck" came from?
Early American settlers heard the Cree Indians call them "wuchak" which means digger. It sounded like "woodchuck" and the name stuck.

Be careful if you decide to go shoot "woodchucks" in Vermont.
That's a local slang term for "redneck" up there.
 
I don't know what the number is but all ground hogs should have the same number of teets.
Teets that are not being sucked will not be inlarged and will be inconspicuous as we called them last summer doing wolf research. I'mguessing a inconspicuous ground hogs teet will be all but unnoticable. The number of pups the particular hog has is probably the biggest factor in how many teets are inlarged.
Matt
 
M Jager,
If you are correct, then this hog had 7 pups in the den because all seven were very large nipples and must have been used a lot lately.
That is very interesting. I'll take my camera the next time I go out.
 
Peterjc, as I said before, groundhogs have 4 pairs of teats. That means 8 nipples. This is typical of all the marmots. The size of the litter does NOT determine which nipple gets used. They ALL get used. The babies do not have their own "assigned" teat. So whether the litter size is 4 or 10, all 8 nipples get sucked. Yours only had 7 developed. No telling what happened to the 8th. Birth defect, maybe? How close to TMI are you? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif
 
I was telling a friend of mine that when I'd shoot a groundhog, in the Spring, I'd pinch a couple of the teets to see if there was milk in them. This would tell me if she'd been nursing and had a litter of pups in the den or not.

He'd just looked at me, grin and say, "I never felt like I could take those kinds of liberties with a groundhog." :rolleyes:

Good hunting, Bowhunter57
 
I agree with Nasa to an extent. The number of enlarged teets do not mean the hog has that same about of young. I disagree that all the teets get sucked and if a teet is not conspicuous that means there is something wrong with it. In my experience, not all teets get sucked in 100% percent of the litters, and a teet that isn't getting sucked will dry up and become inconspicuous. I could be wrong hear but this is how I see it.
Matt
 


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