Hello Steve,

It is impossible to give you absolute confirmation of which critter is digging in your lawn from a picture alone. The damage you show is consistent with squirrel or chipmunk forage.

Was there a lot of wildlife activity last fall, burying the acorns that fell? As long as you are close to a source of storable snacks, you are likely to have critters burying things in the fall and digging them up in the spring. There is not much that you can do to avoid this. But the bigger picture is will this damage your lawn? If you use good cultural care practices in your lawn maintenance, there is likely no long-lasting effect of the digging. It is really a form of wildlife aeration.

Now the skunks and grubs – Skunks are much more destructive looking for grubs. They tend to slice the sod and roots off the surface of the dirt and flip it over. The damage they cause is much more detrimental to the lawn.

Here is a tip sheet from MSU that addresses good lawn cultural care: https://www.canr.msu.edu/resources/go_green_lawncare_tip_sheet

Hope this helps,