Rhode Island’s groundhog records add up to 324, among the highest counts for any mammal tracked in the state’s iNaturalist and GBIF data. Most reports cluster around Narragansett Bay, in shoreline parks and out on the islands, rather than deep in the state’s interior forest.
A true hibernator built for open ground
Unlike most of the mammals sharing this list, the groundhog spends real winter months asleep. It packs on fat through summer and fall, then drops its body temperature and heart rate way down for a long winter sleep that can run from late fall into early spring. It digs a burrow system with several entrances for that sleep, for raising young, and for a quick escape from foxes and coyotes, and it grazes almost entirely on grasses, clover, and garden greens. That diet and digging habit favor open ground over closed woods, which is likely why Rhode Island’s records concentrate at places like Colt State Park, Prudence Island, and Fort Adams State Park, where mowed lawns, old pasture, and hedgerow edges give it exactly the open forage and diggable soil it wants.
Records vanish in midwinter
Rhode Island’s month-by-month counts drop to zero in January, February, and December, then jump once spring arrives, climbing to their highest point in June. That pattern tracks the hibernation cycle almost exactly: no records appear while groundhogs are underground for the winter, and reports pick back up as soon as they’re active on the surface again.
Status in Rhode Island
The groundhog is native to Rhode Island, and NatureServe ranks it S5, secure in the state. It isn’t tracked as introduced or at risk here, and it’s among the state’s most frequently recorded mammals in this dataset.
