A woodchuck has keen senses of sight, hearing, and smell. When feeding, a chuck usually raises its head every ten seconds or so to check for danger. A muscular body, short, powerful legs, and sturdy claws make the chuck an excellent digger, and the critter spends much of its time underground. It piles excavated dirt at its burrow's main entrance and often sits on this mound to look about. The burrow descends at a sharp angle below the entry hole and then levels off into a narrower tunnel.
Woodchucks often dig many side tunnels and two or three back entrances.
Burrows are usually located in well-drained, sloping areas, and rarely get flooded. In digging, chucks use their strong forefeet to loosen the soil, then their hindfeet to kick the earth behind them. Even though a groundhog has short legs, it can run at a fairly fast clip for a short distance. Woodchucks climb well, ascending and descending trees head first. They have good balance and frequently walk along wooden fence rails.