The bodies of a half-dozen dead groundhogs collected by Harrisburg Animal Control along a path in Riverfront Park were disposed of rather than preserved for testing, a spokesman for the city said Wednesday.
The bulk of the groundhogs turned up dead in less than an hour Monday evening along the path in a half-mile area of the trail between Forester and Clinton streets, raising concerns over what might have caused the multiple deaths so quickly.
It was first reported that the city would be having the carcasses picked up Tuesday and tested for cause of death. But Matt Maisel, director of communications for the city, said Wednesday in an email to PennLive: “The dead groundhogs have been disposed. Because this was the first time anything like this has ever happened, our immediate focus was getting them out of the heat, which didn’t afford us the time to contact the proper authorities to figure out what to do with them.
“We don’t believe this is a widespread issue. However, this has undoubtedly made us more vigilant in the event there was foul play. Should something like this happen again, we’ll be ready to look into other options, including a necropsy. For the time being though, the matter is closed as it relates to the city.”
Responding to a followup question, Maisel explained, “At this time we don’t believe this rose to the level of needing to be tested,” adding that the city made “a conscious decision” to dispose of the groundhogs. “We want to see if this is a recurring event,” he said.
The disposal of the carcasses also stymies any investigation by the Pennsylvania Game Commission.
“We weren’t provided with any carcasses, and we didn’t find any at the location of the incident,” Dustin Stoner, information and education supervisor in the commission’s Southeast Region, said. “Since no carcasses are available for testing, we will await further calls relating to this incident before we proceed any further.”
Anyone with information pertaining to this incident can report it to the commission at 1-833-PGC-WILD.
Stoner said that whenever there is a report like this one where several animals are found dead “in a short period of time and in a finite location, we want to find out why. Unfortunately, since the carcasses were removed and discarded prior to our involvement, we were unable to determine the cause of death.”
The dead groundhogs turned up suddenly Monday evening.
David Root, who runs along the path most evenings, spotted the groundhogs around 7 o’clock.
When he began his nightly run of about three miles, he saw one dead woodchuck along the path. But as he completed the return leg of his run less than an hour later, he noticed several additional animals “that weren’t there before” now lying dead along the path.
Root said he did not notice any blood on the animals, which could indicate attack by some predator. “Some were on their sides, some were on their backs,” he said.
Contact Marcus Schneck at mschneck@pennlive.com.
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