what is a wood chuck

A woodchuck is a rodent of the family Sciuridae, belonging to the group of large ground squirrels known as marmots. It is also known as a groundhog, whistle pig, or land beaver. The name "woodchuck" is unrelated to wood or chucking and stems from an Algonquian name for the animal, wuchak. Woodchucks are herbivores that prefer tender plants to coarser bark and trees, and they do not typically eat hard wood. They are an important part of a healthy, thriving ecosystem and are native to North America. While woodchucks do not chuck wood, they do "chuck" dirt as they build underground burrows.