Avatar:Singing groundhog

"Yeah! I'm putting an orchestra together!"

— Aang remarking about the singing groundhogs.

<infobox theme-source="nation"> <image source="image" /> <title source="name"><default>Singing groundhog</default></title> <group> <header>General information</header> <label>Habitat</label> <label>Status</label> <label>Bending</label> <label>Uses</label> </group> <group> <header>Chronological information</header> <label>First appearance</label> <label>Last appearance</label> <label>Voiced by</label> </group> <header></header> </infobox> The singing groundhog is an animal that resides on the prairies near the Si Wong Desert. It is able to mimic any note with near perfection.

History

As part of Team Avatar's mini-vacations, Aang chose to visit the territory of the singing groundhogs in order to play around with the musical abilities of these little creatures. Aang demonstrated, by playing the flute, that they had an innate musical ability, and would respond to any musical note by singing a usually pitch-perfect response, even responding to Sokka's sarcastic "la dee da". As Aang kept playing, Momo attempted to capture one of these animals by running after them every time they popped out of their holes to respond to Aang's notes. The winged lemur even hopped into the holes of these small creatures in his pursuit.

Behavior

These creatures live in colonies on wide open prairies near the Si Wong Desert, and like ordinary groundhogs, they feed off insects and roots. Each singing groundhog spends its life mastering a single note. Their songs are a form of communication. Singing groundhogs are hibernating creatures, and cannot be found during the winter.

With an ear for music, groundhog colonies will respond to single tones from a flute or other instrument by repeating that tone back to the player. In this way, people can even gain the animals' trust. Conversely, singing groundhogs "can be very harsh music critics" and deeply dislike when human musicians get off key. The musical abilities of these little critters attract tourists from all over the world.

Connection

The singing groundhog seems closely related to the real life prairie dog, which, unlike the real life groundhog, often pops out of small holes in the ground.

See also

• Fauna in the World of Avatar