A groundhog is a large rodent found mostly in the Northeastern United States and throughout most of Canada. With its heavyset body, a groundhog can be as long as two feet, excluding its tail. The animal's body is covered with coarse, brown hair. A prairie dog is a herbivorous rodent found mostly in the Western United States and Northern Mexico. Prairie dogs are related to groundhogs and live in burrows like them as well.
Prairie dogs are traditionally shorter than groundhogs and have short, buff-colored coarse hair.
These animals, well known for their barking cries, live in colonies of burrows which may extend for miles and contain families of prairie dogs numbering thousands. Thank you for your cooperation.