At posting, the verdict was not yet in, but there are plenty of groundhog stories, like:
Far from celebrating groundhogs, New Hampshire once tried to eradicate them from the state via a short-lived but wildly successful bounty on their pelts.
The state paid $12,206 in groundhog bounty claims for the fiscal year ending June 1885. At 10 cents per pelt, that amounted to more than 120,000 groundhogs — or woodchucks, as they were called then.
The bounty, which was repealed soon after, was the result of a legislative committee appointed to study the critters. Their view was decidedly negative.
Declaring the animals “not only a nuisance, but also a bore,” state Rep. Charles Corning called them “absolutely destitute of any interesting qualities” and “one of the worst enemies ever known to the farmer” in his 1883 “Report of the Woodchuck Committee.
I am from Pittsburgh and it’s a huge party at Gobbler’s Knob, Pennsylvania. Shut down the town kind of party. An absolute sea of people. It’s been like that long before the movie, but then there’s not much to do in February.
This years Punxsutawney Phil predicted an early spring but do note that marmots are not exactly qualified to make to make meterological forecasts. It’s a mostly cute tradition with a hint of madness, kinda like sticking a tree in your living room and hanging up socks to celebrate the birth of Jesus at Christmas. Makes total sense when you’re drinking.
For the record, Groundhogs (or woodchucks) are pretty docile and cute. They are also excellent climbers. This little fellow was quite curious about me, and why I was hiding in his field (taking pictures of birds).
