About two feet long, this largest member of the squirrel family has dark gray fur on a stout body with short legs and tail, and gives a sharp whistle as an alarm call. It is a large rodent in the squirrel family weighing between two and nine pounds and may grow to be 26 inches. The animals attain weight in late summer, with thick layers of fat that will sustain them through winter hibernation. Their head is short and broad, legs short, ears small, body thickset, tail densely furred, and front paws clawed for digging burrows. Woodchucks are largely herbivorous and eat grasses, flowering plants, berries, roots, mosses, and lichen.

Open grassy areas, fields, small open woodlots, agricultural land, and along brushy fence lines, where they make underground burrows, often on slight hills, up to five feet deep and 30 feet long. These burrows, when abandoned, provide denning sites for opossums, raccoons, foxes, and skunks.They forage for food in the morning and in the afternoon. They eat plants like alfalfa, clover and dandelions as well as insects, tree bark, leaves, and bird eggs. Woodchucks eat as much food as they can in the spring and summer so they can build up fat reserves for when they hibernate in the winter.