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Liz Bickel | all galleries >> My World: Multiple Galleries >> Missouri Mabel and Her Brood > Baby's First Day Out 5-04-23
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04-May-2023 copyright Elizabeth Bickel

Baby's First Day Out 5-04-23

Baby Groundhog

Apparently, both of Mabel's daughters (born 2020) were pregnant.

After living together since birth, they started out the season sharing the backyard woodpile https://pbase.com/britestar/image/173447323 However this year, they soon started to have repeat disputes as to who was going to continue to live there. The sister (running away in the link) was the one who eventually won the rights to stay in their childhood home.

When I took a photo of the smaller pregnant sister (who had been banished to the stream) https://pbase.com/britestar/image/173602570, I had no idea that the other sister was also pregnant. After repeatedly chasing her littermate off, that girl also disappeared for a while. At some point, she had then moved from the woodpile (away from the house) to "setting up house" under our deck. Bella alerted us to her new presence.

Suddenly this afternoon, the above cutie hesitantly peeked up from under the edge of the deck before quickly darting back under. I watched for a while, and he then came out a little further. He went back and forth several times before a second pup tentatively also peeked out. Although the second pup never fully came out, the first one came the whole way out and sat up to look around at the world new to him. He's soooo cute.

I remember his mother at the same age https://pbase.com/britestar/image/170715270
back when Mabel first started to bring her babies around to our front porch.

It's going to be fun watching these new pups grow up.
As for the other pregnant sister, she seems to have disappeared. She obviously has relocated to have her babies where I can no longer see her nor them. When I last saw her, she was pretty big and looked like she would probably have a large litter. Mabel had a litter of 7 back when she had the two females who have now given birth this Spring.

The cycle of life continues.

Nikon COOLPIX P900
1/250s f/5.6 at 125.0mm iso400 full exif

other sizes: small medium original auto
comment
Hank Vander Velde06-Jun-2023 01:27
Cute for sure and giving you a good look.
Carl Carbone06-Jun-2023 00:43
So cute! I saw one scamper across a country road a few days ago.
Helen Betts05-Jun-2023 20:37
Aww, so very cute!
Tomasz Dziubinski - Photography05-Jun-2023 17:07
Superb shot and fine story as well, Vote.
Mairéad05-Jun-2023 10:14
Aww - that's so cute. And great that you are documenting the family.
joseantonio05-Jun-2023 07:26
so cute and lovely.V.
Wintermeer05-Jun-2023 07:23
Looks hypercute! ~V~