There are many questions related to groundhogs in everyone’s mind, and we are trying our best to answer these questions through our articles. And one such question is, do groundhogs eat cucumbers?
When you live in an area where groundhogs are invading everyone’s gardens, knowing what they eat and what they don’t can help you secure your crops and take necessary precautions to get rid of them.
Do Groundhogs Eat Cucumbers?
Yes. Groundhogs eat cucumbers, in fact, these are one of their favorite foods. As groundhogs are herbivore animals, they eat most vegetables and fruit.
Although they eat snails, grasshoppers, and other insects, their ratio is much less when compared to other food sources.
A few foods that they like are alfalfa, tomatoes, lettuce, melons, broccoli, carrots, cucumbers, and other home-grown vegetables are their favorite foods. These rodents are notorious and known to wipe out vast stretches of vegetables easily.
Interesting Fact: Groundhogs only eat voraciously during the warm months of the year, go into hibernation during the cold months, and stop eating completely for a brief period.
What Do Groundhogs Eat?
Groundhogs (Marmota Monax) are found all over North America, but their highest concentration is in the North-Eastern and Central states. They belong to the family of large ground squirrels called ‘marmots’.
We often hear people cursing groundhogs for their voracious feeding habits; they feed on a wide range of vegetation – right from grass and agricultural produce to small insects.
They dig their burrows close to farms, gardens, and orchards so that they make sure that the food is available in plenty in all seasons and at any given point in time.
Only in rare cases do they display their omnivorous traits by feeding on grasshoppers, snails, grubs, etc. But they really like tender greens like lettuce, green beans, cantaloupes, and corn.
Also Read: Do Groundhogs Eat Watermelon?
Do Groundhogs like Cucumbers?
Although groundhogs are known to climb trees and swim, they are mostly ground dwellers. So, they would love to eat fruit and vegetables that are grown on the ground, like cucumbers.
Also, they very rarely drink water directly from the water sources; instead, they depend on plants for their hydration. So, it has so many reasons to devour this fruit whenever it’s available.
Do Groundhogs Eat Cucumber Plants?
Nothing beats refreshing cucumber water on a summer evening, but it will happen only when something has not eaten cucumbers from your garden before you can even get the opportunity to enjoy them. Many animals will happily deny you the pleasure of a cucumber, and groundhogs are definitely one of them.
Also Read: Do Groundhogs Eat Strawberries?
Groundhogs have learned that garden food is good to eat, and cucumber leaves are their favorite meal after green bean plants. They prefer green vegetation; roots and barks form an important part of their diet. Groundhogs’ diet is not restricted to wild plants alone but also includes flowering plants and vegetables.
They have a great appetite for flowers like sunflowers, marigolds, snapdragons, etc. Due to this nature of destroying standing plants, groundhogs are considered a menace by farmers and gardening enthusiasts in North America.
Are Groundhogs Endangered?
Recently, the fall in the number of wolves and other animals that prey on groundhogs has only contributed to a rise in their population. Due to this, the species (groundhogs) is enlisted as a ‘Least Concern’ species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). So, they are not on the endangered list of animals.
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