Woodchuck

Not sure if this is a woodchuck or a marmot. Spotted this one at the campground in Waston Lake, Canada.

The woodchuck (Marmota monax),... more

by Robert Bales

Title

Woodchuck

Artist

Robert Bales

Medium

Photograph - Photo

Description

Not sure if this is a woodchuck or a marmot. Spotted this one at the campground in Waston Lake, Canada.

The woodchuck (Marmota monax), belongs to the marmot family, and goes by many names, including groundhog and whistle pig due to the sound they make through their large teeth to warn one another of danger.

While there are several species of marmots in North America, our woodchuck is found mostly in the eastern United States and across much of southern Canada. In New England, woodchucks inhabit both urban and suburban yards, fields, meadows, woodland clearings, and we see them frequently in grassy areas along highways.

Marmots are large squirrels in the genus Marmota, of which there are 15 species. Marmots mostly live in mountainous areas, such as the Alps, northern Apennines, Eurasian steppes, Carpathians, Tatras, and Pyrenees in Europe and northwestern Asia; the Rocky Mountains, Black Hills, Cascades, Pacific Ranges, and Sierra Nevada in North America; and the Deosai Plateau in Pakistan and Ladakh in India. The groundhog of North America is a lowland marmot. The similarly sized, but more social, prairie dog is not classified in the genus Marmota but in the related genus Cynomys.

Marmots typically live in burrows (often within rockpiles, particularly in the case of the yellow-bellied marmot), and hibernate there through the winter. Most marmots are highly social and use loud whistles to communicate with one another, especially when alarmed.

Marmots mainly eat greens and many types of grasses, berries, lichens, mosses, roots, and flowers.

Uploaded

April 9th, 2020