A lady just called with a woodchuck problem, so I'm asking what kind if problems it's causing and have you actually seen the animal. She tells me it is climbing up inside their card and chewing the wiring. I said "are you sure it's a wood chuck" the response was golden. " yep, my husband started the car and the check engine light came on, so he opened the hood and the "woodchuck" was sitting on top of the engine just looking at him, then it ran down through the engine, and so he tried to drive away hoping it would get out way down the road , but when he stopped at the end if the driveway it jump out and ran into the woods"

So I told her I would come out and confirm what kind of animal it was and set up for it. "Oh it is definitely a woodchuck" she says. Well she needs to confirm with her husband to hire me.

I'm getting a guide book to North American Mammals so I can have customers ID what they are seeing.

At another woodchuck job I'm working its been described twice by the same person One description is a woodchuck the other is a raccoon

There was an article on here about certain car manufacturers using a soybean based plastic on the wiring in their cars, and how rodents rabbits etc were chewing up the wires.

MikeD

Thx. Now I know why

But I still don't think it's a woodchuck

I've caught several raccoons at a car dealership that were removing the insulation from the inside of the hood on brand new cars.

( Or maybe it was just one with a fetish ) I have taken woodchucks out of vehicles. You just pop open the hood and there they are,

smiling at you.

Nat geo makes a great book off north America animals.

It probably IS a woodchuck. Had the same thing happen once to one of my customers. They saw the woodchuck drop out from under engine area, the wires were all chewed up. Don't remember what kind of car it was.

Last week a call came into some colleagues with the state that there was a family of river otter on the interstate median.

This area has a massive amount of prairie dogs....

Always interesting to see what people think is one animal when completely another....

Last year had a skunk run up an arbor onto the roof. "It was definitely a skunk you need to come now before it sprays!"

So I headed out, was a black and white cat who cornered a rock squirrel after chasing it onto the roof....

The husband said he told his wife it was just a cat and the wife didn't appear at the door again after that....

Keeps it fun!