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Main Boards => PowWow => Topic started by: Michael Arnette on April 12, 2016, 01:27:00 AM

Title: Anyone ever sighted a woodchuck in tree?!
Post by: Michael Arnette on April 12, 2016, 01:27:00 AM
Anyone ever seen a woodchuck climb trees? I've seen it twice while out scouting over the years. Both were before smart phones so I wasn't able to take a picture. One was in a small pecan and the other in a locust tree.
Title: Re: Anyone ever sighted a woodchuck in tree?!
Post by: RJonesRCRV on April 12, 2016, 01:31:00 AM
I saw one at least 20" up a pine years ago.  I asked my parents and they said theyve seen it some too.

Apparently grey foxes can climb some as well.
Title: Re: Anyone ever sighted a woodchuck in tree?!
Post by: Michael Arnette on April 12, 2016, 01:34:00 AM
Well I didn't think I was crazy...
Title: Re: Anyone ever sighted a woodchuck in tree?!
Post by: longstiks on April 12, 2016, 04:15:00 AM
First time I saw one I thought it was a tree rat on steroids,but then I saw it was lacking the tail! I don't know why one would want to climb a tree though.
Denny
Title: Re: Anyone ever sighted a woodchuck in tree?!
Post by: Bowwild on April 12, 2016, 04:18:00 AM
You bet.  My little mongrel dog used to tree them often when I was a teenager. I climbed a tree once and got just below the groundhog. He came down and stopped right at my forearm. I thought, uh-oh, I'm going to get bit! We were eye to eye at less than a foot.

That one was about 15'. I've seen them unpressured in trees about 10' or so.

He didn't bite. He went on down he tree.  I voluntarily deducted 10 points from my I.Q. after that...put me in single digits!
Title: Re: Anyone ever sighted a woodchuck in tree?!
Post by: Friend on April 12, 2016, 04:49:00 AM
Have witnessed it before.
Title: Re: Anyone ever sighted a woodchuck in tree?!
Post by: hawk22 on April 12, 2016, 05:21:00 AM
I shot one out of a tree last spring
Title: Re: Anyone ever sighted a woodchuck in tree?!
Post by: bucknut on April 12, 2016, 05:24:00 AM
Yes, several times. They use them as an escape route sometimes. I have seen them feed in trees before also.
Title: Re: Anyone ever sighted a woodchuck in tree?!
Post by: Bowjunkie on April 12, 2016, 05:38:00 AM
Yep, a handful of times. One was up pretty high in an oak tree.
Title: Re: Anyone ever sighted a woodchuck in tree?!
Post by: highlow on April 12, 2016, 05:42:00 AM
Yup. A number of times. Definitely not as agile as a tree rat but they can climb.
Title: Re: Anyone ever sighted a woodchuck in tree?!
Post by: LostNation_Larry on April 12, 2016, 06:08:00 AM
Had a beagle who treed a woodchuck one time.  That dog was ecstatic!  A snuffer through the skull ruined the woodchucks day.
Title: Re: Anyone ever sighted a woodchuck in tree?!
Post by: Tim on April 12, 2016, 06:50:00 AM
Here in PA I've seen them climb up into the Mulberry trees in the spring.  They're pretty good climbers.
Title: Re: Anyone ever sighted a woodchuck in tree?!
Post by: Buckeye1977 on April 12, 2016, 06:55:00 AM
Have had my beagles run them up in honeysuckle bushes a lot! They can get up in there pretty quickly!
Title: Re: Anyone ever sighted a woodchuck in tree?!
Post by: hawkeye n pa on April 12, 2016, 07:07:00 AM
I've seen them in a tree many times, have shot a few of them.  My dog's have treed them.  Years ago I hunted a orchard and one particular groundhog would bask in the sun on a big apple tree limb ten feet up.
Title: Re: Anyone ever sighted a woodchuck in tree?!
Post by: GreyGoose on April 12, 2016, 07:12:00 AM
Heavens, yes.  I've shot one that had climbed well up the trunk of a spruce Christmas tree in my parents front yard.  Dad used to have a nice bearing cherry tree out back, and I witnessed a groundhog up in it to harvest some.
Title: Re: Anyone ever sighted a woodchuck in tree?!
Post by: Tom on April 12, 2016, 07:49:00 AM
Killed several that were trees in an apple orchard I used to live near.
Title: Re: Anyone ever sighted a woodchuck in tree?!
Post by: dhaverstick on April 12, 2016, 08:01:00 AM
When I was a kid, my sister had a half Walker half Redbone hound named John Yeller who was too lazy to breathe if he didn't have to. One day I heard him barking up the road and I went to investigate. I found him underneath a persimmon tree with a young groundhog up in it about 10 feet. Feeling like the dog had finally redeemed himself, I ran back to the house as fast as I could to get a gun. On my return trip, ole John Yeller met me about half way; leaving his post and letting the whistle pig get away. At least he was consistent about amounting to nothing!

Darren
Title: Re: Anyone ever sighted a woodchuck in tree?!
Post by: black velvet on April 12, 2016, 08:02:00 AM
Seen them in trees many times when I was into chuck hunting big time.
Title: Re: Anyone ever sighted a woodchuck in tree?!
Post by: Anointed Archer on April 12, 2016, 08:19:00 AM
Yepper, had one that would climb a tree and just taunt my dog terrible. One day I seen the hog meesing with my dog. I snuck around the house and shot it off the limb right in my dogs lap. Wish I had a camera as that critters eyes got as big as softballs when my dogs jaws wrapped around it's head, LOL
Title: Re: Anyone ever sighted a woodchuck in tree?!
Post by: Homey88 on April 12, 2016, 08:28:00 AM
Yes sir!
Title: Re: Anyone ever sighted a woodchuck in tree?!
Post by: ron w on April 12, 2016, 09:04:00 AM
Many times.....
Title: Re: Anyone ever sighted a woodchuck in tree?!
Post by: ranger 3 on April 12, 2016, 09:26:00 AM
I can say I haven't but I have never hunted them in the trees.    :knothead:
Title: Re: Anyone ever sighted a woodchuck in tree?!
Post by: rraming on April 12, 2016, 09:34:00 AM
I've seen one in a tree but didn't see how it got there.

I also saw a flying squirrel once but still and not sure what I saw
Title: Re: Anyone ever sighted a woodchuck in tree?!
Post by: K.S.TRAPPER on April 12, 2016, 09:50:00 AM
I see lots of them resting in the trees,  sunning and feeding on mulberrys and just climbing around exspeacially the young ones along the river I fish all summer long.

Tracy
Title: Re: Anyone ever sighted a woodchuck in tree?!
Post by: NYRON on April 12, 2016, 10:09:00 AM
Yes! From a stand, I once watched the top of a smallish apple tree swaying back and forth about 50 yards away in an overgrown orchard. I was sure that it was a buck making a rub (though I've never seen a rub on an apple tree), but I didn't have a clear view through the brush. A few minutes later the culprit appeared as he headed past my stand--a young woodchuck toting an apple as big has his head! So much for my buck.
Title: Re: Anyone ever sighted a woodchuck in tree?!
Post by: jabodnar on April 12, 2016, 10:30:00 AM
When I was in highschool my neighbors cut down several acres to create a pasture for horses.  The woodchucks quickly started to make a mess and they offered me $10 a head.  Best job I ever had...

I used to sit tucked back in the trees in an old lawn chair waiting for them to come out.  I remember seeing one about 20 ft up an old oak.  I must have watched it for 30 minutes in disbelief (really, just trying to make sure I wasn't about to shoot their cat...).  

Never met anybody else that's seen this and now there's two pages of people who have.
Title: Re: Anyone ever sighted a woodchuck in tree?!
Post by: mlsthmpsn on April 12, 2016, 11:51:00 AM
There is an old hay barn next to my place, still full of hay from many years ago. A lot of boards are bow out and loos, and some broken off.

A woodchuck makes his home in there every year in a spot where two boards are broken near the concrete foundation wall. This foundation wall is probably 3ft high, and his hole is above that a ways in the corner of what use to be four square bales...he jumps up and dives straight in that hole, no problem!

Craziest thing I've ever seen one do.


Otherwise, I regularly see them sunning on top of some big brush piles out there near the barn.
Title: Re: Anyone ever sighted a woodchuck in tree?!
Post by: olddogrib on April 12, 2016, 03:01:00 PM
Yes, they're accomplished climbers.  How someone answers that question will definitively tell whether they are a country boy or a city slicker. That or the Ernest T. Bass gold standard test...do they know how to "ta git a postum out frum unner a rock?"
Title: Re: Anyone ever sighted a woodchuck in tree?!
Post by: frank bullitt on April 12, 2016, 04:02:00 PM
Yep! My son and I saw one climbing a tree in our woods along the creek.

Last year, behind our work building saw one in a mulberry tree, also.
Title: Re: Anyone ever sighted a woodchuck in tree?!
Post by: ISP 5353 on April 12, 2016, 04:56:00 PM
I had one climb a tree 10 yards from my stand and then proceed to take a nap on a limb.  Very funny!
Title: Re: Anyone ever sighted a woodchuck in tree?!
Post by: Orion on April 12, 2016, 05:10:00 PM
Can't say as I have.  Did see a very large snapping turtle about 20 feet up in a tree once.  It was on a large tree leaning at about a 45degree angle out over the water, with a bend somewhat like a rainbow.  Pretty steep, but it no doubt climbed to get up there.  

Would like to have stayed around to see how it got down, crawl backward down the tree trunk or just take a 20 foot dive into the river?  In a canoe as part of a group outing at the time, and couldn't retrieve my camera from the dry pack fast enough to get a pix.
Title: Re: Anyone ever sighted a woodchuck in tree?!
Post by: Bladepeek on April 12, 2016, 05:24:00 PM
I heard Phil was hiding out in one after his early spring prediction.
Title: Re: Anyone ever sighted a woodchuck in tree?!
Post by: elkhunter-27 on April 12, 2016, 05:39:00 PM
We had one sitting in a crook of one of our apple trees, about 6 feet up.
Title: Re: Anyone ever sighted a woodchuck in tree?!
Post by: nek4me on April 12, 2016, 06:50:00 PM
I never saw one personally but remember a picture of one up a tree in Outdoor Life years ago so knew they could climb. Did have a unusual experience with one a couple summers ago. Have a 2nd story deck off back of house with a veggie garden below it and stairs going up alongside the garden. Kept my mower under the stairs. Took the mover out from under the stairs
and around the garden to the driveway on other side to gas it up. Maybe a 40ft push. Had trouble like the wheels were locking up as it was getting hard to push but kept pushing. Made it to the paved drive and when I stopped a good size chuck ran out from under the mower. Never saw him before or since!
Title: Re: Anyone ever sighted a woodchuck in tree?!
Post by: jcar315 on April 12, 2016, 06:52:00 PM
Seen them climb trees AND I've seen them climb over chain link fences too.
Title: Re: Anyone ever sighted a woodchuck in tree?!
Post by: Keith Zimmerman on April 12, 2016, 07:20:00 PM
Yep, up trees and fence posts.
Title: Re: Anyone ever sighted a woodchuck in tree?!
Post by: stagetek on April 13, 2016, 01:00:00 PM
I've seen plenty of woodchucks, but never one in a tree.
Title: Re: Anyone ever sighted a woodchuck in tree?!
Post by: Cory Mattson on April 13, 2016, 01:16:00 PM
Yes - PA 1976 - walking out from trout fishing wild brook trout - a woodchuck climbed up a a tree - about 15 feet laid out on a limb - stayed there and watched us - seemed reasonably confident as most treed game - left him about his business - thought it was cool.
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Title: Re: Anyone ever sighted a woodchuck in tree?!
Post by: Killdeer on April 13, 2016, 06:27:00 PM
Saw one up a small tree at Spruce Knob, WV, a few years back. Did not note which species of tree, though.

My husband, who grew up with the nickname Whistle Pig, was much amused.

Killdeer   :biglaugh:
Title: Re: Anyone ever sighted a woodchuck in tree?!
Post by: David Mitchell on April 13, 2016, 09:44:00 PM
Sure have.  At the time I didn't think they could climb a tree.
Title: Re: Anyone ever sighted a woodchuck in tree?!
Post by: Mudd on April 15, 2016, 02:14:00 PM
Yup!
Title: Re: Anyone ever sighted a woodchuck in tree?!
Post by: Steve Kendrot on April 15, 2016, 06:36:00 PM
Yep. They're in the squirrel family.