Groundhog Day
What is a Groundhog?
By Cynthia Kirkeby
Jan 21, 2008, 08:58 PST

Charles H. Warren

Groundhogs also known as Woodchucks and Marmota monax

"The woodchuck (Marmota monax), a member of the squirrel family, is common throughout Indiana. It can be found in open pastures, woodlots, cultivated and fallow fields, and along railroad embankments, ditch banks, roadsides, fence rows, and levees. In cropping areas, woodchucks consume soybeans, corn and alfalfa. The extensive burrowing activities of woodchucks in fields can interfere with farm operations, cause damage to equipment, injury to livestock, and create significant erosion problems in levees, pond dams and railroad embankments. Around private homes, one or two woodchucks are capable of ruining a small garden almost overnight.

The woodchuck is a vegetarian. Various grasses, clover, alfalfa, plantain, and other types of tender green succulents make up its diet. In crop areas, it is especially fond of the soybean plant, but it will also feed on young corn plants and even ears in the milk stage. An adult woodchuck consumes between 1 and 1-1/2 pounds of vegetation daily.

Woodchucks enter hibernation beginning mid-October and emerge during February. They mate shortly after emergence, with a single litter of four to six young born a month later (March-April). The young leave the nest in early July to establish their own burrows and territories. Woodchucks live an average of 4-6 years."