Wiarton Willy sees shadow

[Kahran Ramsus 0]

 

Groundhogs: Six more weeks of winter

 

(CP) - Three of North America's top furry forecasters had some bad news for the winter-weary on Monday.

 

Punxsutawney Phil, Pennsylvania's prognosticator, Wiarton Willie, Ontario's best-known Groundhog Day woodchuck, and Alberta's Balzac Billy saw their shadows after squirming out of their burrows, signalling six more weeks of snowy and cold weather.

 

Their outlook flies against the prediction of Shubenacadie Sam, Nova Scotia's best-known groundhog, who got the weather-prediction wheel moving early on Groundhog Day. Sam failed to cast a shadow upon exiting his winter home, pointing to an early spring.

 

Groundhog Day is rooted in a German superstition that if a hibernating animal casts a shadow Feb. 2 - the Christian holiday of Candlemas - winter will last another six weeks. If no shadow is seen, legend says spring will come early.

 

Although an annual weather-forecasting ritual, Groundhog Day has been debunked by some researchers.

 

They have found that woodchucks emerging from their burrows in mid-winter are really looking for love.

 

Stam Zervanos, an associate professor of biology at Pennsylvania State University in Reading, observed 30 groundhogs over four years.

 

He found that most went into hibernation in early November and emerged in early February to search for suitable mates.

 

"What's happening, I'm pretty confident, is that they're getting together, getting ready for mating that's going to come later," Zervanos said after releasing his study last year.

 

His work is backed by Anthony Aveni, a Colgate University professor in Hamilton, N.Y., who said Groundhog Day evolved from the workings of an animal's biological clock.

 

Wiarton Willie, for instance, "was certainly coming out for much more exotic reasons than seeing his shadow," Aveni told the Ottawa Sun before Willie's emergence Monday. "He was coming out to look for the lady groundhog so they could mate in the springtime."

 

PETA's Michael McGraw says it's even worse than that - the groundhogs are poked, prodded and paraded after spending all of their time in cages, not burrowing in cozy dens.

 

"Enough already! Let's hit the snooze button on this sad tradition," said McGraw of the various groundhogs, Canadian and American, who participate in Groundhog Day festivities.

 

"Once a year, when other groundhogs are hibernating, Punxsatawny Phil is loaded into a cage, dragged around to a variety of 'festivities,' and held up before news crews' flashing cameras. It is a cruel tradition that should be discontinued."

 

Still, Groundhog Day has become a big tourist draw to communities which herald the woodchuck's annual shadow-seeking ritual.

 

While many North Americans are anxious to put one of the worst winters on record on ice, the townsfolk of Wiarton - including Willie's so-called shadow cabinet of local politicians and service-club members dressed in pink, purple and white tuxedos - cheered Monday after their groundhog saw his shadow.

 

"He did a quick turn there, and I think it's because he did see his shadow and we have six more weeks of winter," said Carl Noble, mayor of South Bruce Peninsula.

 

Brenda Sutherland, a volunteer for the annual Wiarton Willie Festival, said cheers greeted Willie's prediction because "you've got to make the best of whatever he's got to say, because you're stuck with what he says."

 

In an interview, Sutherland said that Willie's forecasts over the last 48 years have had a 90 per cent accuracy rate.

 

Canada's East Coast groundhog ceremonies gave a glimmer of early-spring hope.

 

"He's just coming out of the hole as we're speaking," said Sue Penney, an education co-ordinator at Nova Scotia's Shubenacadie Wildlife Park, where about 100 people showed up to see Sam.

 

"It's cloudy . . . he will not be seeing his shadow."

 

Initially, Penney was reluctant to disclose Sam's past record in predicting the end of winter.

 

"Actually, I don't think he's even batting 50 per cent. I think it's less than 50 per cent accuracy," she confessed.

 

"I think the main point of the whole event is it's an excuse to celebrate that winter's half over," Penney said.

 

Some three hours after Sam's emergence, Balzac Billy gave a West Coast thumbs up to a long winter in Balzac, a small prairie community in southern Alberta just north of Calgary.

 

"It took him a little time to get out (of his hole), because it was kind of snowed over, but he managed to make it out," said Bob Priebe from his General Store, location of the 23rd Balzac Billy event.

 

Priebe said the about 50 spectators were disappointed that Billy saw his shadow, "but on the other hand, like one of them said, no matter what happens, there's always about another eight weeks of winter left anyway."

 

Punxsutawney Phil was the first groundhog to see his shadow.

 

After a rap on an oak stump roused him from his home on Gobbler's Knob, Phil saw his shadow on a chilly morning.

 

Phil even included a topical reference in his proclamation - to the capture of Saddam Hussein.

 

"I'm glad I live in this luxurious burrow on the Knob, and not in a dirty, smelly, spider hole like a slob," said the proclamation read aloud by one of the organizers. "When I come out, I don't want to negotiate; but to just do my job and prognosticate."

 

The prediction of six more weeks of winter drew boos from thousands who turned out for the 118th annual festivity. Including Monday's prediction, the groundhog is reported to have seen his shadow 104 times since the tradition began.

 

People from as far away as England descended on the small Pennsylvania town to shake the winter doldrums.

 

Mike and Anne Castledine, a retired couple from Derbyshire, England, caught groundhog fever after seeing the Bill Murray movie Groundhog Day, and just wanted to experience it for themselves.

 

"We were quite hooked once we'd seen the movie," Anne Castledine said.

 

Credit: canoe.ca http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2004/02/02/333505-cp.html

[Vyce 0]

You know, even if he hadn't seen his shadow.....

 

.....we'd STILL have six more fucking weeks of winter.

[Kahran Ramsus 0]

You know, even if he hadn't seen his shadow.....

 

.....we'd STILL have six more fucking weeks of winter.

This is Canada, we'll have 12.

[Vern Gagne 0]

No shit. We got hit with unbelievably cold temps last week, and this weekend we got a foot of snow.

[Perfxion 0]

Groundhog's day is a stupid holiday, I don't care about when winter ends. When does the fucking cold in? Today is the warmest it has been in about a month. Only 35 is the high.