Vikenty the marmot woke up earlier than usual in the Kyiv region: what does this mean
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In the “12 months” zoo in the Kyiv region, Vikenty the groundhog woke up earlier than usual. About two weeks ago, he came out of his house and started walking around the enclosure.
This is reported by Suspilne.
As zoo employees note, the animal may wake up earlier if the average daily temperature exceeds zero degrees and is on the rise. However, it is likely that the marmot may return to hibernation if it gets colder.
“The pressure changes, the temperature changes, it becomes warm. And he, asleep, slowly goes outside and begins to look at what has changed around him“, says zoo employee Serhii Burch.
| PHOTO: Public |
The zoo assures that the fact that Vikenty the groundhog woke up earlier will not negatively affect his health. He has enough fat reserves, and he could sleep for another month.
Vikenty has lived in the zoo for almost nine years. During this time, he was woken up only once for Groundhog Day, which is celebrated around the world on February 2.
According to folk signs, if a groundhog that woke up earlier sees its shadow, gets scared and runs away into a hole, spring will have to wait another 6 weeks.
But if the animal does not see a shadow and calmly comes out of the burrow, spring will be early.
However, zoo employees are against specifically waking up rodents.
“They sometimes wake up earlier. They have a feeling when it’s time to wake up. They feel it by temperature and other signs that we, humans, do not feel. But waking them up and asking whether or not it will be early spring is a little inhumane. That’s why we don’t wake up“, says the director of the zoo Mykhailo Pinchuk.
According to him, groundhogs finally come out of hibernation in mid-March.
We will remind you that the tradition of the marmot prediction is connected with drawing attention to this interesting species – the steppe marmot or baibak (Marmota bobak). After all, the marmot suffers from poaching in Ukraine, so in 2021 it was recognized as an endangered species and entered into the Red Book of Ukraine.
Kharkiv marmot Timko III “visited” that spring in 2023 will come in the middle of March.
From the beginning of the great war, Timko, together with other groundhogs, was in the occupation of the village of Nesterivka until the successful counteroffensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Kharkiv region in the fall.
Fortunately, the rodents survived the occupation – they were cared for by two workers of the biostation.
Read also: In the Poltava region, marmots dug up ceramics of the 7th century BC
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