Vermont’s occurrence records list 807 documented groundhog sightings, a solid share of the state’s mapped mammal records. That count tracks how often people spot a woodchuck standing up at a field edge, not a direct measure of how many burrows are actually out there.
Open ground from Green Mountain pastures to the Connecticut valley
Records concentrate along the Green Mountains’ hillside pastures and forest edges and through the farmland of the Connecticut River valley on Vermont’s eastern border, both landscapes with the well-drained, sunny, open ground a groundhog needs to dig a burrow system deep enough to survive winter. Vermont’s mix of working farms and forest-edge clearings gives the species plenty of that kind of ground statewide.
Records lag well behind Groundhog Day
Records sit at almost nothing in January and February, then jump sharply in March and peak by May. That pattern runs months behind the early-February date the species is famous for; a groundhog is a true hibernator, and in Vermont’s colder climate it typically doesn’t break winter dormancy and start moving around outside its burrow until well into March.
Status in Vermont
NatureServe ranks the groundhog S5, secure, and it’s native to Vermont. Its burrow-digging habit reshapes the ground it lives on, loosening soil and creating dens that foxes, skunks, and rabbits often take over once the groundhog moves on, a small but real role in the state’s farmland and forest-edge wildlife.
