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Species Description

• Adult total length: 22 - 27 in. (550 - 675 mm)

• Tail: 4 - 7 in. (100 - 175 mm)

• Hind foot: 2 3/8 - 3 7/8 in. (62 - 98 mm)

• Weight: 5 - 10 lbs. (2.25 - 4.50 kg)

• Physical Characteristics: The short-legged woodchuck is a large, stocky rodent with a broad, flattened head, a blunt nose, and a medium-length tail. It is the largest member of its family in the park. Also known as "groundhog" and "whistle-pig", the woodchuck has long, coarse yellowish-brown to brown fur that has a grizzled or slightly frosted appearance because of the presence of whitish, buff, or cinnamon-colored hairs. Whitish areas are present on the sides of the face, nose, lips, and chin. The feet are dark brown to black. The flattened tail is furred and varies in color from black to dark brown. The underparts are whitish-buff to brownish.

left lateral view of skull and mandible	dorsal view of skull	ventral view of skull

• Range Maps

  North America	Great Smokies

• Great Smoky Mountains National Park: Woodchucks have been seen in the park from the lowest elevations up to approximately 6,300 feet (Linzey, 1995b ). They are most abundant in the open meadowlands and along the mowed roadsides at the lower elevations and are rare in dense forests and in the spruce-fir region. Woodchucks are less plentiful now than formerly due to the ecological changes occurring as the park reverts to a more forested condition.
  • Blount Co.: Cades Cove (1,750 feet).

  • Sevier Co.: Park headquarters (1,500 feet); Greenbrier (2,000 - 2,200 feet); Fighting Creek Gap (2,500 feet); Sugarlands (2,500 feet); Newfound Gap Road (2,500 feet; 3,000 feet); Mt. LeConte (6,593 feet).

  • State (Tenn. - N.C.) line: Collins Gap (5,700 feet).

  • Haywood Co.: Black Camp Gap (4,522 feet); Little Bald Knob.

  • Swain Co.: Smokemont; Deep Creek; Newfound Gap Road; Bunches Creek; Three Forks; Clingmans Dome Road (6,100 feet); Forney Ridge (6,300 feet).

Index

Natural History

• Reproduction
  Woodchucks breed at one year of age. Mating occurs in March and April and gestation is about 30 days. A single litter of young per year are produced with sizes ranging from two to nine, but usually consists of three to five. Young are born naked, blind, and helpless. They are weaned at six weeks and begin to wander from the natal burrow and live by themselves shortly after that.

• Longevity
  Woodchucks have been known to live five to six years in the wild.

• Terrestrial Ecology
  Woodchucks are solitary and are most active in early morning and late afternoon. They dig their own burrows, each of which may have as many as five entrances. Abandoned burrows, or burrows containing a hibernating woodchuck, may be used by snakes, opossums, cottontails, skunks, weasels, foxes, and other wildlife.

  Woodchucks have excellent eyesight and are able to climb trees in order to escape an enemy. When startled, a woodchuck will give a loud, shrill whistle; hence the name "whistle pig".

  By the end of summer, woodchucks have become very fat in preparation for hibernation. Although active woodchucks have been recorded in the park during every month, most enter hibernation. Entrance into hibernation is apparently caused by decreasing daylength. A hibernating woodchuck is coiled into a tight ball with the head resting on its lower abdomen and the hind parts and tail wrapped over the head. During this deep sleep, respiration and heartbeat are greatly decreased, and body temperature is considerably lower than when the animal was active. In general, the metabolic rate of animals in hibernation is between 1/30 and 1/100 of the "resting" metabolic rate of non-hibernating animals. During hibernation, the breathing rate may be reduced to only one breath every five or six minutes, while the woodchuck's heartbeats may be as few as three beats per minute, in contrast to the normal rate of 80 to 95 beats per minute. Rectal temperature reaches a low of 3°C(38°F) during hibernation, while the normal summer reading is 32°C(90°F).

  Woodchucks feed primarily on grasses, clover, alfalfa, wheat, corn, soybeans, and berries. Bark may occasionally be consumed. In the park, they have been observed feeding on clover (Komarek and Komarek, 1938) and on the bark of the silverbell tree (Halesia carolina) (Fleetwood, 1934).

  The bacterial enterococcus Streptococcus faecalis has been recorded from fecal specimens by Mundt (1963).

• Predators and Defense
  Although woodchucks are well protected by their alertness and their burrows, some are taken by bobcats, bears, foxes, weasels, and rattlesnakes. Stupka (1938) found a woodchuck that had recently been killed by a bobcat (Lynx rufus) above Big Cove (3,200 feet), an area just outside the park boundary. Many woodchucks are killed be automobiles.

• Parasites
  None recorded from the park.

• University of Michigan, Museum of Zoology
• eNature

Index

Acknowledgements

• Text
  • Dr. Donald W. Linzey, Wytheville Community College - wclinzd@wcc.vccs.edu
  • Christy Brecht, Wytheville Community College - wcbrecc@wcc.vccs.edu

• Photographs
  • Roger Barbour

• Map development
  • Richard Schulz, Great Smoky Mountains National Park - richard_schulz@nps.gov

• Web page design & coding
  • Denise Lim, University of Georgia, Athens
  • John Pickering, University of Georgia, Athens

• Fleetwood, R. J. 1934 - 35. Journal of Raymond J. Fleetwood, wildlife technician, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, for the period May 27, 1934 - June 27, 1935. 499 pp. (Typewritten).

• Komarek, E. V. and R. Komarek. 1938. Mammals of the Great Smoky Mountains. Bulletin of the Chicago Academy of Sciences 5 (6): 137 - 162.

• Linzey, D. W. 1995a. Mammals of Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Blacksburg, Virginia: The McDonald & Woodward Publishing Company, Inc.

• Linzey, D. W. 1995b. Mammals of Great Smoky Mountains National Park-1995 Update. Journal of the Elisha Mitchell Scientific Society 111(1):1-81.

• Linzey, D. W. 1998. The Mammals of Virginia. Blacksburg, Virginia: The McDonald & Woodward Publishing Company, Inc.

• Mundt, J. O. 1963. Occurrence of enterococci in animals in a wild environment. Applied Microbiology 11: 136 - 140.

• Stupka, A. 1935 - 63. Nature Journal, Great Smoky Mountains National Park. 28 vols. (years) each with index. (Typewritten copy in files of Great Smoky Mountains National Park library).

• Svendsen, G.E. 1999. Woodchuck. Pages 398 - 399. In: D.E. Wilson, and S. Ruff (eds.). The Smithsonian Book of North American Mammals. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press.

• Taylor, C. A. 1979. The density, distribution, and activity patterns of woodchucks in Cades Cove, Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Master's thesis, University of Tenn., Knoxville, TN.