Recent Range Expansion of the Groundhog, Marmota 
monax, in the Southeast (Mammalia: Rodentia) 
Sarah S. Robinson 1 and David S. Lee 
North Carolina State Museum of Natural History, 
P.O. Box 27647, Raleigh, North Carolina 27611 
ABSTRACT . — In recent years the groundhog, Marmota monax, has 
greatly expanded its range in the Southeast and now is found in areas of 
the Piedmont Plateau and Coastal Plain where it did not occur in 
historical times. This change in distribution is believed to correlate with 
changing land use practices. 
The groundhog, Marmota monax, is generally distributed 
throughout northeastern North America. South of Pennsylvania and 
New Jersey it was until recently known mostly from Piedmont Plateau 
and montane areas. Paradiso (1969) indicated its apparent absence from 
the Delmarva Peninsula and perhaps most of the Coastal Plain of 
Maryland. In Virginia, Handley and Patton (.1947) reported it to be most 
common in the mountains, although they had many Piedmont and 
several Coastal Plain records. Bailey (1946) noted that groundhogs were 
“scarce” in the “tidewater region” of Virginia. In the Carolinas, 
Marmota has been reported only from mountainous regions (Brimley 
1944-46; Golley 1966; Hall and Kelson 1959). This note documents its re- 
cent expansion in the Piedmont Plateau of North Carolina and in the 
Coastal Plain province of Maryland, Delaware, and North Carolina. 
Between 1970 and 1977 we compiled Delmarva records for 
Marmota. Data for North Carolina were obtained from a 1974 question- 
naire on the distribution of the groundhog that went to all field personnel 
of the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission and from recent 
records compiled by the North Carolina State Museum (NCSM). The 
questionnaires are on file in the Department of Mammalogy and 
Ornithology, NCSM, and voucher specimens from the areas discussed 
are in the museum’s mammal collections. 
DELMARVA PENINSULA 
Paradiso (1969) noted that M. monax was in all sections of 
Maryland “except the Eastern Shore, where it has until lately been un- 
known. There is recent evidence, however, that the species is extending its 
range into that section.” Grizzell (1955) reported that it first appeared on 
the Delmarva at the turn of the century, spreading from Pennsylvania, 
and by 1955 populations had increased sufficiently to be a probelm in 
'Present address: Coastal Zone Resources Division, Ocean Data Systems, Inc., 4505 Franklin 
Avenue, Wilmington, NC 28403 
Brimleyana No. 3: 43-48 July 1980. 
43 
