How Much Dirt Can a Woodchuck Chuck...?
The woodchuck (also known as the groundhog, Marmota monax) is often seen as a no-talent nuisance, but truth be told:
Woodchucks climb trees-ascending and descending headfirst-to escape enemies and to reach fruits and succulent leaves.
Woodchucks provide an important aspect of wildlife habitat with the tunnels they dig. Skunks, opossums, raccoons, and foxes occupy and remodel vacant burrows and use them to rear young. Rabbits hide in the burrows. Many smaller animals, including small rodents, reptiles, and amphibians, spend much or part of their lives in woodchuck burrows. Woodchucks' digging also loosens and aerates the soil.
The woodchuck is actually the eastern species of the rodent known as marmots, and is closely related to the widespread yellow-billed marmot (Marmota flaviventris) of western states.
Reference: (in part) Wildlife of Pennsylvania and the Northeast by Charles Fergus.
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