Groundhogs (also called woodchucks) spend most of their lives digging burrows, eating plants, and hibernating, and in the process they quietly engineer the soil and provide shelter for other wildlife.

Quick Scoop: What Do Groundhogs Actually Do?

  • Dig long, multi-room burrows for sleeping, raising babies, hiding from predators, and even using “toilet chambers.”
  • Eat lots of grasses, clover, garden veggies, and other plants—an adult can eat over a pound of vegetation a day.
  • Hibernate in winter in their underground burrows, living off fat they built up during summer and fall.
  • Aerate and mix the soil as they dig, which helps plant roots get oxygen and redistributes nutrients.
  • Provide ready-made homes for other animals (like skunks, foxes, and rabbits) that move into abandoned burrows.
  • Communicate with sharp whistles and tooth chattering to warn others of danger.
  • Occasionally become a “nuisance” to farmers and gardeners by tunneling under fields, fences, and eating crops, even though they’re also helping the ecosystem.

In short: they’re shy plant‑eaters that spend their days digging, eating, and napping underground, accidentally doing a lot of landscaping and neighborhood construction for other animals along the way.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.