Conversations with my friends.....

[ApS]

(Apologies to Songwriter Sam Cooke).

Don't know much about groundhogs.

Looking at their sizes, I wondered if the fox is a predator of full-sized groundhogs. (Also called woodchucks)

From the source below, an adult groundhog's girth is about the same as a fox. Since a groundhog lives only a year, it spends most of its life growing in size.

"...The den pipe of a groundhog den may plunge straight down as much as two or three feet. It is very common for a groundhog pipe to have at least one or two right angles in it -- locations from which the groundhog can slash at foxes and dogs that might try to pursue them underground..."

http://www.terrierman.com/lifehabitatgh.htm

Also this:

"...Groundhog burrows are important shelter resources for red fox, gray fox, opossum, raccoon, and skunk, most of whom do not dig their own burrows, but simply occupy those of groundhogs...as forests have fallen to farms, the population of woodchucks and mid-sized predators such as fox and raccoon, have skyrocketed..."

Groundhogs can climb trees!