For the past 3 years, the resident groundhog in our yard has been a bob tail.
That's one reason how I know the one, who has showed up just this Spring, is a different individual. This critter has a tail. The tailless one is now gone. Different groundhogs have different facial and body features that - once you recognize them - make individuals easy to tell apart.

Groundhogs are solitary creatures and very defensive of their home territory.
However if one dies, another will move into the same burrow.
It's rather sad to see the tailless fellow now gone. But lives moves on.

NOTE: This is "Missouri Mabel".

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April 26, 2020, 01:05 GMT
USA
960,651 confirmed cases of COVID-19
54,256 American Deaths

Milestone: The USA alone now has OVER One Quarter (1/4) of all COVID-19 cases in the entire world.
Hard to image how things got to this point since March 1st.

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In the wild, groundhogs can live up to six years; with only two or three years being average for most. In Nature, pneumonia is a leading cause of death for groundhogs. In captivity, groundhogs can live up to 14 years. Captive groundhogs obviously have both better living conditions & get better health care than wild ones. Young wild groundhogs will take over abandoned burrows. That's why we've had a couple of Phil's and a couple more Phillis's residing in our backyard; prior to the tailless guy & now this one. One of the Phil's lived almost 8 years; which was extremely old for a wild groundhog.