Groundhog Range Expansion 
47 
Coastal Plain: Bertie County.— Old homestead, 200 yd. (182 m) 
from Roanoke River near Woodville; 1975 (terrace soils— loamy sands to 
clay loams). Levee along Roanoke River near Kelford; 1976 (Dunbar- 
Lynchburg sandy loam). Edgecombe County.— Downtown Tarboro un- 
der building; no date. Gates County.— Peanut fields, US 13 near Storey’s 
crossroad; 1973 (Craven-Shubuta sandy loam). Greene County .—8 mi. 
(12.9 km) w of Snow Hill; 1972 (Craven-Shubuta sandy loam). Halifax 
County.— Levees along Roanoke River at Weldon; 1971-75 (alluvial 
soils). Hertford County.— Burrow under bridge abutment 0.7 mi. (1 km) s 
of Menola on SR 1150; 1973 (silt loam). Johnston County . — Clayton 
(NCSM 256); 1951. Martin County . — Swimming in Roanoke River near 
Jamesville; 1973 (terrace soils— loamy sands to clay loams). Nash 
County.— Surburban area west side of Rocky Mount; ca. 1948 (Norfolk- 
Ruston sandy loam). Shoulder NC 43; 1970 (Norfolk-Ruston sandy 
loams). Northampton County.— Levees and brushy fields Occoneechee 
Neck, along Roanoke River; 1971-1975 (Norfolk-Ruston and Appling- 
Cecil sandy loams). 3 to 5 mi. (4.8 to 8.1 km) n of Rich Square; no date 
(Lenior-Coxville silt loams). 
Clearing of forests for agricultural purposes has increased the 
amount of habitat suitable for groundhogs in the Piedmont Plateau and 
Coastal Plain provinces of the Southeast. Highway and utility rights-of- 
way and river levees appear to have provided paths of dispersal from 
other upland areas. The success of Marmota in this region may in part be 
a result of a prolonged growing season combined with a limited period of 
groundhog dormancy. In North Carolina we have reports of active 
groundhogs from all months of the year. 
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS . — We would like to thank Frederick S. 
Barkalow, Jr., N.C. State University; Merrill Lynch, formerly NCSM; 
and personnel of the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission, for making 
available some of the distributional information presented here. John E. 
Cooper, NCSM, read and commented on the manuscript. 
LITERATURE CITED 
Allen, D. L. 1950. The fabulous whistlepig. Sports Afield 123: 28-29, 78-80. 
Bailey, John W. 1946. The Mammals of Virginia. Williams Printing Co., Rich- 
mond. 413 pp. 
Brimley, C. S. 1944-46. The Mammals of North Carolina. 18 installments. 
Carolina Tips, Carolina Biological Supply Co., Elon College. 39 pp. 
Conant, Roger. 1945. An annotated checklist of the amphibians and reptiles of 
the Del-Mar-Va Peninsula. Soc. Nat. Hist. Delaware, Wilmington. 9 pp. 
Franz, Richard, and D. S. Lee. 1976. A relict population of the Mottled sculpin, 
Cottus bairdi, from the Maryland coastal plain. Chesapeake Sci. / 7(4): 
301-302 
