Worm Grunting

I was watching QI the other day and I learnt about an obscure hobby called worm grunting. Now generally people who participate in worm grunting, or worm charming as it is also known, are people who are looking to obtain worms for fishing. However, there are a few of these grunters who are actually in it for the competition, and to whom it is considered a sport. I had never heard of this hobby, let alone the fact that it was a sport previously, but I learnt that some people in Britain, Canada and America compete in worm grunting competitions every year.

Basically the sport consists of people vibrating the soils in order to collect the most worms in a set amount of time and they are usually given a space of three square yards from which they can obtain their worms.  Apparently the reason that worms come to the surface when the ground vibrates, is that they believe that there is a mole in the vicinity, because the vibrations created are similar to the disturbance a mole causes, and moles prey on earthworms. The sport is not considered to be a mainstream sport, so I doubt that it will be making an appearance in the Olympic Games any time soon, however the skills are passed down through the generations in order to preserve this dying pass-time. I  expect that there are few, if any, physical benefits to worm grunting, so I don't see myself trying it any time soon, but you never know what the future may bring (I'm fairly certain I know what it will bring on this particular topic though).