Groundhog Range Expansion 
45 
Coastal Plain: Cecil County. —Chesapeake City; 1941 (NCSM 1997). 
Kent County. Galena (Allen 1950). Fields, Rock Hall; 1973. Eastern 
Neck National Wildlife Refuge; 1972. Talbot County.— Fields, 3 mi. (4.8 
km) east of jet. SR 404 and 309; 1973. Hardwood forest, Mill Creek 
Sanctuary, 8 mi. (12.9 km) east of Easton; 1973. Queen Annes County . — 
Centerville; 1974. Caroline County . — Fields, Denton; 1973. 
NORTH CAROLINA 
The distribution of the groundhog in the North Carolina Piedmont 
Plateau and Coastal Plain is undergoing a transition similar to that 
observed in Maryland and Delaware. In the western Piedmont of the 
state groundhogs are now known from Gaston, Cleveland, Catawba, 
Iredell, Davie, Forsyth, and all counties farther west. In the central Pied- 
mont they occur through Guilford, Randolph and Alamance counties, as 
well as in the tier of counties along the Virginia border — Surry, Stokes, 
Rockingham, Caswell, Person and Granville. The individuals forming 
the presently small, scattered Piedmont populations probably represent 
immigrants from western North Carolina and adjacent counties in 
Virginia. The construction of two large reservoirs on the North Carolina- 
Virginia border (Kerr Reservoir and Lake Gaston) may have facilitated 
movement of the groundhogs into North Carolina as massive areas were 
cleared prior to flooding. 
Populations in Orange and Durham counties appear to date from 
the early 1950s, when 13 animals from the western part of the state were 
released near Hillsborough, Orange County (NCSM files). Specimens 
and sight records from Wake County perhaps represent an expansion of 
this population. 
Groundhogs also have expanded into the northeastern Coastal Plain 
counties of North Carolina, where they are primarily distributed along 
rivers and larger streams— the Neuse River in Greene County and 
Meherrin River in Hertford County, the Roanoke River in several coun- 
ties, the Tar River in Nash and Edgecombe counties, and the Chowan 
River in Gates and Chowan counties. The Roanoke and Tar river areas 
appear to have been colonized first, and our earliest Coastal Plain 
records are from Halifax and Nash counties. There are now populations 
from eastern Vance County through Warren, Halifax, Northampton, 
Hertford, Gates, Chowan, Bertie, Martin, Edgecombe, Nash, Wilson, 
Johnston and Greene counties. The Coastal Plain groundhogs typically 
build their burrows in streambanks and along drainage ditches as well as 
at the edges of open fields. The levees along the Roanoke River, in par- 
ticular, contain a large number of burrows. 
North Carolina Records 
Piedmont Plateau: Davie County.— Mocksville; 1975. Durham 
County. — 10 mi. (16.1 km) n of Durham on US 501; 1979. Franklin 
