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Groundhog "Woodchuck" Description Distinguishing Features - Overall colouration, varying, from pale buff to black with buff-tipped guard hairs, giving a "salt and pepper" appearance; dark brown to black on tail and feet. Heavy-bodied; short-legged.
Habitat Widespread throughout Northwestern Ontario; prefers pastures and fields; forest edges. Diet Grazer; vegetative parts of plants, leaves, bark, saplings; fruits and vegetables. Notes
The groundhog is a nervous animal and never forages far from its burrow where it is vulnerable to attack by many kinds of predators. It is a true hibernator that accumulates a thick layer of fat during the summer to see it though winter inside its deep, sealed burrow, built below the frost line. A female will produce a litter of 1 to 9 offspring each year.
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