Groundhogs
These rodents live a feast-or-famine lifestyle and gorge themselves all summer to build up plentiful reserves of fat.
After the first frost, they withdraw to their underground hideaways and snooze until spring.
During which time they draw their sustenance from the excess body fat.
While hibernating, the animal's heart rate plunges, and its body temperature is not much warmer than the temperature inside its burrow.
As groundhogs learn to live in populated areas, they have become more difficult to control.
They have few natural predators and their shy personality makes them difficult to deal with.
Around the home, woodchucks will feed on just about any plant or flower.
Groundhogs will damage plants quickly with this feeding.
They particularly like tomatoes, fruit or any ground growing vegetable.
Most weekend gardeners can confirm the persistence these stocky creatures will demonstrate when trying to get to a certain crop they want.