Background: We have a huge GH estate in our back yard. Generally, I try the live-and-let-live approach, having illegally relocated many groundhogs only to have new families move into the vacated home. I try to plant things Mr. G. Hog likes near OUR house and away from his. He seems to like the clover that runs wild in that area. I am used to watching him munch away from my kitchen window, or even from a few yards away when I'm in the garden. I have also seen 2 baby groundhogs this spring, although when they saw me, they ran into the neighbor's yard, not into the estate in our yard, so I think there is another family next door. So, I was in the back yard a week or so ago, when one of my dogs (on a staked leash) started making noises and trying to run further into the back yard. I turned around and saw a fox and a groundhog. The groundhog was chasing the fox! Then I saw that the fox had a critter in its mouth. A baby groundhog? Then 3 small foxes came running toward the parent bearing lunch. A few minutes later, I saw ANOTHER fox with ANOTHER small critter in its mouth! The other baby groundhog? I haven't seen our Resident Groundhog since then, although I think that is happenstance. I don't dare believe that he is gone. He's probably just keeping a low profile, as the fox traffic in our yard has been quite heavy!

Wow...I've never seen one do that...ever. I hope I don't get any climbers around here. You know, when I was a kid we had one as a pet. Name was Butterball due to it's affection for peanut butter and because it would run fast then tuck up into a ball and roll. It was a very friendly and comical animal and seemingly quite intelligent. Very playful. It was completely housebroke...no joke. It would scratch at the door when it wanted out and when it wanted back in. My Mom had spent several hundred dollars on new draperies for their picture window from Montgomery Ward. Poor Butterball thought it'd be a good idea to shred the bottoms of them all. That was it...our parents told us (my brother and I) it had run away. It wasn't until about 15 years ago my Father told me they had taken it away and released it. Very clean animals too. I'd never in a million years harm one, but if that were my tree I'd certainly be wanting to.

Thanks for the suggestions everyone! Lol, huge groundhog populations seem to be a SE PA thing... that's where we are too. That's a harrowing story about the groundhog and your dog, wow! I'm glad your dog was OK after that...yikes! Unfortunately my DH is fond of the groundhogs, so trapping and relocating doesn't seem to be an option... The other day I attached a piece of sheet metal to the gate and since then it doesn't look as if anything has been munching anymore on the fenced area of the garden, so hopefully the wide bars on the gate were the only way they were getting in. My fenced garden is surrounded by a concrete patio so they can't tunnel under the fence. Plus the fence is a 3 1/2 foot high old iron fence with bars that are close together and no gap underneath...so far I haven't seen them attempting to climb over it. But you never know. I've never grown vegetables either because of the groundhogs...it's a wonder anyone with farms can grow anything around here. I guess if worse comes to worse I will just have to go with the same plants in my non-fenced area like sedum, salvia, monarda, etc. which the groundhogs don't seem to eat. Thankfully my salvia is in bloom, and all the monarda/bee balm is about to bloom... so at least there is something pretty they don't devour!!

Call CNN, you've got a chupacabra! Seriously... groundhogs ARE marmots, there are just regional differences and as a result they also go by locally different names. Our midwestern "groundhog" is marmota monax, and there's yellow-bellied marmots (aka whistle pigs out west),woodchucks, etc... I agree this is one messed-up individual. By the pictures I would initially say it seems to be a younger groundhog with some serious spinal issues or muscular afflictions or something like that going on, maybe it was struck by a car and survived?? In the first photo the face does initially seem to have a coon-like pronounced nose/muzzle, but when you go to the next photo, the side view shows more of a continuous line from top of the skull to the bridge of the nose, which is more consistent with 'hogs. I keep going back to the first photo, though, and staring at those feet! This should settle the debate...find a good clear set of tracks or just get out your binocs and count the # of toes up front...a groundhog will have four and a coon will show five. And before anyone gives me a pat on the back for thinking of this, I have to be honest...I was initially going to go with "how does it walk?" first, not # of toes. I know that coons move in a completely different manner than 'hogs and was going to suggest watching for this behavior next time you saw it, but then wondered if this would be a dependable diagnostic given the way this thing is standing, which is pretty FUBAR for a groundhog. So, while I was scratching my head I had hunted up a reference sheet to double check my stride comparisons when I spotted the toe discrepancy. I learn something every day! So there you go, this should help narrow the field. BTW, don't be surprised if it chatters its teeth at you or gives a really loud, piping squeal. And don't corner it... a healthy groundhog will try to get away from you, even shimmy up a tree ( have seen this personally), but if it feels cornered it can fight like the dickens.