Of 3,729 Ohio groundhog records, just nine come from January and fourteen from December. The calendar does not taper off; it slams shut in November and stays shut until March, the surest signature of a true hibernator.
Five months underground
Groundhogs are among the few mammals that hibernate in the full sense, dropping their body temperature to near the chill of the burrow and living off stored fat from roughly October into late February or March. Ohio’s record traces the emergence: counts climb through March, then swell to their May peak as the animals feed hard on fresh spring growth and the year’s young begin appearing above ground. By October they are back underground.
Field edges over deep woods
A groundhog needs two things side by side: open ground to graze and a bank to dig into. Pastures, hayfields, road embankments, and the brushy edges of cropland suit it far better than unbroken forest, and Ohio’s farm country obliges. Records run from Cuyahoga Valley National Park and Quail Hollow State Park in the northeast through Killbuck Marsh Wildlife Area and the Lake Erie marshes at Metzger Marsh and Maumee Bay, and reach the cleared edges of Wayne National Forest in the southeast. Wherever a grassy field meets a fenceline, Ohio has groundhogs.
Status in Ohio
The groundhog is native to Ohio and not listed as nonindigenous by USGS NAS. NatureServe leaves it unranked (SNR) in the state; globally it is G5, Secure, and the IUCN lists it as Least Concern.
