While many people associate woodchucks with riddles and rhymes, Chris Maher has spent much of her time at the University of Southern Maine closely studying their behavior. The associate professor of biology is asking and answering questions about their social encounters and family life.
Maher has done much of her recent research with the help of a $50,000 federal grant awarded last year. The Professional Opportunity for Women in Research and Education (POWRE) is awarded to women in the sciences who are changing direction in their field. Maher was one of a handful to receive the grant. Only about 15 percent of those who apply are awarded any money.
“There’s not much money and there’s a lot of proposals,” she said.
With the help of the grant, Maher was able to learn DNA fingerprinting techniques at the University of Maine in Orono, and was taught how to perform surgery at Allbright College in Pennsylvania.
“Money allowed me to learn the techniques,” she said.
Now with the knowledge and technology, Maher is able to track the woodchucks more accurately than before. After trapping them, she is able to make an incision in the underside of the animals and place a radio transmitter inside them. The transmitter is a small plastic piece that weighs about 35 grams. After a woodchuck has a transmitter, Maher uses a receiver to track the animal.
“We can find them when they’re underground,” she said. “Technology’s pretty nice right now.”
Over the next few weeks, Maher will be concentrating on getting transmitters into the younger woodchucks in preparation for next spring. This new ability to track the animals will also help Maher answer questions about hibernation. She is wondering if young woodchucks sleep next to their adult parents.
Maher conducts her research at Gilbert’s Farm in Falmouth. It is a 65-acre lot owned by the Nature Conservancy that is home to about 40 woodchucks. Her research is centered on their socialization and tolerance of each other.
The woodchuck is a marmot, which is part of the rodent family. They have been considered anti-social in comparison to other marmots, however, most of the existing research was done in the 1960s. Maher has challenged much of that existing research and has found many of her predictions to be true.
“Why aren’t woodchucks as social?” she asks, “If you’re going to live that close to someone you have to tolerate them. They might be more social than we think.”
Maher’s research has shown that woodchucks are territorial between the sexes. Females defend their area against other females whereas they are willing to let a male walk by. It is also found that males and females will spend time together outside of the breeding season. Maher has even witnessed a mother allowing an adult male into a den with pups. She suspects the male is the father of the litter. Her new ability to perform DNA fingerprinting will confirm that.
Over the four years that Maher has been doing research, she has seen some family members come to create a small community within the area. Bonnie, a female that’s at least five years old, lives next to her adult daughter Natasha. Recently, siblings of Natasha’s from another litter have moved in next door.
All of these findings contradict what research has indicated in the past. With the federal grant, Maher will continue to examine these animals and further prove her predictions. Woodchucks may not gather at the local pub on a rainy afternoon, but Maher’s research has shown they truly are a social bunch.
Staff Writer Tyler Stanley can be contacted at: [email protected]