What is this animal?

[PirateGirl]

sometimes marmots are called whistle pigs. (you likely have marmots where you are in CO. they are benign creatures)

It's all coming together. Where I grew up we had groundhogs aka woodchucks, moles, and voles. Where I live now, we have marmots, pikas, prairie dogs, and voles (not sure about moles, so far the cat has just brought home voles). Also in CO there are 5 (or more) varieties of "ground squirrels" which on the east coast would have been called a chipmunk which may just be one of the varieties of ground squirrels, though that's another confusing point.

I do love the marmots, they really tease the dogs while we are hiking, and do not live in the same type of environment I attempt to garden in, so no hard feelings.

 

[Hyroler]

Thanks to all for the info... I haven't seen any signs of him (or her) being in the coop or chicken run, but don't want to take a chance. At this point it seems to like it under one of the sheds. What would be the best bait to get it into a trap (I've got a fairly large live trap), but don't want to use chicken feed... won't want to give it a taste for it if it doesn't have it already...

I bet he would taste pretty good in a stew.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

Ground Hog, Woodchuck, and Whistle Pig are all 3 names of the animal you pictured. During the Great Depression this animal was also called "Dinner"

Abandoned Ground Hog dens make swell nurseries for foxes, skunks, coyotes, coons, and almost every other mammal with a hankering for a chicken supper. Its not living under your shed, it merely is using the shed to extend the safety zone around one the entrenches to its burrow.

 

[mechanic57]

My wife HATES groundhogs because they destroyed her garden one year. I put a fence around it and plants kept getting eaten. One day I went out there and saw a ground hog in the garden. When it saw me it climbed the fence, jumped down and ran off. I was shocked to see that fat furry thing not only climb the fence, but it did it so quickly! I finally out-smarted them by using welded wire and curving the top of the fence outward so the fence looked like an upside down letter J. The groundhogs could climb the fence but could not get over the top. It was like they were climbing up into an umbrella and couldn't get over the top of it.

Other animals do take up the holes they leave behind. I have rabbits living under my detached garage in a hole the groundhogs created to have close cover when they were running assault raids on my wife's garden. Their holes can also cause structural damage to buildings (sheds, garages, etc) by digging under them.

 

[Hyroler]

My wife HATES groundhogs because they destroyed her garden one year. I put a fence around it and plants kept getting eaten. One day I went out there and saw a ground hog in the garden. When it saw me it climbed the fence, jumped down and ran off. I was shocked to see that fat furry thing not only climb the fence, but it did it so quickly! I finally out-smarted them by using welded wire and curving the top of the fence outward so the fence looked like an upside down letter J. The groundhogs could climb the fence but could not get over the top. It was like they were climbing up into an umbrella and couldn't get over the top of it.

Other animals do take up the holes they leave behind. I have rabbits living under my detached garage in a hole the groundhogs created to have close cover when they were running assault raids on my wife's garden. Their holes can also cause structural damage to buildings (sheds, garages, etc) by digging under them.

You should send your fence design to President Trump.Maybe they will use it for new Border Wall.

 

[mechanic57]

LOL I can't take credit for the design. I got the idea from a fence I saw in Iraq. I was securing a captured Iraqi airfield when we were removing Saddam Hussein from power. The perimeter fence was built like my groundhog fence. The weird thing was theirs was curved in toward the base, like they wanted to keep their own people from getting out instead of curving the top of the fence out to keep intruders from getting in.

 

[CPT]

Nutria / groundhog / woodchuck ?? Could be a whistle pig (ha ha) but has a longer tail.

I used to live on East Coast, near rivers / wetlands, and nutrias are very common. They are semi-aquatic rodents. They are really ugly little buggers. And a nuisance.

 

[mike1970]

did it have a shadow

 

[Peppercorngal]

I thought groundhog and gopher were two different words for the same animal depending what part of the country you are from... now I'm confused.

A groundhog is in the squirrel family, a gopher is in the rat family, they are very different. Gophers are smaller than groundhogs and try to stay underground as much as they can. Groundhogs like to eat your garden and chicken food and are much bigger than gophers.

 

[Peppercorngal]

LOL I can't take credit for the design. I got the idea from a fence I saw in Iraq. I was securing a captured Iraqi airfield when we were removing Saddam Hussein from power. The perimeter fence was built like my groundhog fence. The weird thing was theirs was curved in toward the base, like they wanted to keep their own people from getting out instead of curving the top of the fence out to keep intruders from getting in.

You were in Iraq and are sane and intelligent enough now to type and make fences?! Thank you for your service dude. My brother was drafted back in 1967 and went to Vietnam. He came back a different person without the common sense of a bar fly. Been crazy ever since.