Everything You Wanted To Know About Groundhogs

 

Woodchucks, also called groundhogs, are closely related to the marmots that are common in the west. These grayish brown creatures are typically 16 to 20 inches long including a six-inch tail, and weigh between six and 12 pounds.

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Basking in the mid-day sun, families of woodchucks may evoke thoughts of a harmonious existence between humans and nature in suburbia. But many Maine gardeners soon learn that unless they take precautionary measures, most of their precious plantings may be sacrificed to the woodchuck's voracious appetite.

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Habitat

• In New England, woodchucks inhabit both urban and suburban yards, fields, meadows, woodland clearings, and are frequently seen in grassy areas along highways.

• Woodchucks live in extensive burrows two to six feet deep and up to 40 feet long that contain numerous chambers with specific functions such as nesting waste disposal. You can identify the main entrance by an adjacent large mound of dirt that the animal uses for observation and sitting in the sun; in addition, there may be as many as five other openings to the den.

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Behavior

• Woodchucks are active during the day. In summer they commonly feed in the early morning and the late afternoon, spending the rest of the day sleeping or basking in the sun.

• Woodchucks are among the few true hibernators found in Maine. In late summer they begin to put on weight in preparation for the move to their winter dens, often located in wooded areas. Woodchucks begin their hibernation in October and emerge in February or March.

• The average life span for a woodchuck in the wild is five to six years.

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Food

• Mainly vegetarians, woodchucks feed on a variety of grasses and chickweeds, clover, plantains and many varieties of wild flowers. They eat blackberries, raspberries, cherries, and other fruits and along with the bark of hickory and maple trees.

• To the dismay of gardeners, woodchucks love fresh vegetables, especially broccoli, peas, beans, carrot tops, lettuce and squash. They also commonly target asters, daisies, lilies, marigolds, pansies, phlox, snapdragons and sunflowers.

• Woodchucks will also eat grasshoppers, June bugs and other large insects.

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Breeding

• Woodchucks do not mate until their second year.

• Males and females breed in March or April, after which there is no further contact; the female raises the young alone.

• Woodchucks give birth from early April to mid-May following a 32-day gestation period. One litter contains four to six kits. The young open their eyes at four weeks and are weaned at six weeks when they are ready to leave the burrow with their mother. In the fall the young woodchucks venture off to seek their own territories.