Groundhogs in farm fields

Some thoughts, but not posted in this TT thread:
http://toledotalk.com/cgi-bin/tt.pl/article/160220/12Aug2013/Critter-control-Groundhogs

hr.

Outside the city, I think the growing coyote population has thinned the groundhog herd. Years ago, it seemed the groundhog was the most common roadkill. Now it's the raccoon, and I rarely see roadkill groundhog.

I don't know about today, but in the past, the farmers in hilly eastern Ohio kept a rifle in their trucks. Whenever the farmers spotted a groundhog, they would stop and shoot it, and it didn't matter whose farm field the groundhog was seen in. The farmers looked out for each other when it came to groundhogs.

Tractors on a hillside may get a bit wobbly if a wheel sinks into a groundhog burrow. 

#nature - #mammals - #groundhog