Woodchuck

Marmota monax bunkeri

Largest of the family Sciuridae (which also includes chipmunks, ground squirrels, tree squirrels, prairie dogs, and marmots), woodchucks can be found in eastern Kansas in grasslands, brushy woodlands, and forest edges.

Woodchucks live in underground dens with one or two dirt-mounded main entrances and tunnels of up to 40' feet leading to nesting and hibernation chambers. Emergency exits are disguised by grasses and shrubs and are used to escape predators who enter the den. Abandoned woodchuck dens are often enlarged and used by other mammals.
Woodchucks are reclusive and difficult to spot, but can sometimes be seen waddling along the ground, bellies dragging. They sometimes climb small trees to reach food and bask in the sun, and can produce various whistles and calls-why they are known in some reasons as whistle pigs.
By autumn, a thick layer of fat has accumulated for hibernation - hence their other name, groundhog. Settling down in a den with entrance holes safely barricaded for the winter, the woodchuck curls up and respiration, body temperature, and heart beat decrease to a fraction of their normal rates.
In spring, skinny woodchucks emerge from their nests having lost up to half their body weight! Young are born in early May in litters of two to nine. They are weaned and begin raging outside the den in a mere six weeks, and by two months are capable of being fully independent. Woodchucks subsist on grasses, tree foliage and other plants.
-Amy Albright