A North American squirrel relative that eats plants near fields and woodland edges and digs an underground burrow.
It has a broad, rounded body, short powerful legs and a flat, bushy tail, with a paler belly.
After breeding season, a study in two Connecticut orchards combined 734 captures of 273 woodchucks with 1,213 radio locations from 46 tagged animals. Adults with home ranges used an average of eight burrow systems, showing that their living space extends beyond one entrance.
Burrow systems were concentrated along woodland edges and brushy fence rows, where use was two to three times greater than expected. Home ranges of reproductive females and males overlapped by 36%. The author proposed that diffuse resources in agricultural landscapes may help explain loose spatial structure. In orchard management, burrows and field edges are useful features to record together.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.
In two Connecticut orchards, a post-breeding-season study found burrow systems disproportionately along woodland edges and brushy fence rows, with use two to three times greater than expected from availability. Recording these features together with burrows can help describe local habitat in agricultural settings. The study does not report a current global conservation category, assessment date, or population trend.