Monday, February 1, 2010

Happy Groundhog Day

Tomorrow (Feb. 2nd) is Ground Hog Day and I realized that there are no ground hogs - Marmota monax - in Wyoming. (see map)

The largest Groundhog Day celebration is held in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, where crowds as high as 40,000 gather in the early morning darkness (they start to show up at 3 AM!) to get a look at Punxsutawney Phil! If you are not familiar with the legend, it works like this. Basically if Phil sees his shadow he will return to the burrow and there will be another six weeks of winter. If he does NOT see his shadow, he comes out to play because there will be an early Spring.

So what will happen here with no ground hogs? I predict at least six more weeks of winter! Just because winter never ends in WY until May!

Hope all your ground hogs are happy!

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