Now we understand what Punxsutawney Phil, the groundhog who forecasts if an early spring will come every Feb. 2, does on the remaining 364 days.
The group in Pennsylvania that takes care of Phil, and his groundhog partner, Phyllis, has announced that the couple has become parents.
The Punxsutawney Groundhog Club stated on Wednesday in a Facebook post that Phyllis recently had two healthy babies. It did not mention their gender or give names for either one.
“We're happy to declare that Punxsutawney Phil has become a father for the first time; we think there are two baby groundhogs and that Phil and Phyllis have started a family,” Thomas Dunkel, president of a group called The Inner Circle, said at a news conference on Wednesday. “We're happy about it, and I talked to Phil using my cane, which allows me to speak Groundhogese, and Phil could not be more thrilled that he has started a family.”
Dunkel mentioned that a club member found the babies on Saturday when he came to feed their parents fruit and vegetables.
Phil comes out of his burrow each year on the morning of Feb. 2. If he sees his shadow, tradition holds, there will be six more weeks of winter. This year, he did not see his shadow, indicating an early spring.
Even though Phil is the most well-known, he is not the only groundhog to attempt meteorology. There have been weather-predicting groundhogs in at least 28 U.S. states and Canadian provinces, and less formal celebrations everywhere.
Phil and Phyllis live in controlled climate conditions at the Punxsutawney Memorial Library.
But like most growing families, they now need a larger place to live. The club intends to move them to a bigger home on the library’s grounds.
Like Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny, Punxsutawney Phil comes with his own mythology, including the belief that he will live forever, due to consuming a magic drink called “The Elixir Of Life.” (His wife is not allowed to drink the elixir, and so, is not immortal. Where are groundhog suffragettes when they’re truly needed?)
Considering that the yearly Groundhog Day custom has been performed since 1887, that would place Phil in his late 130s, a reproductive achievement that outshines Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, and Mick Jagger.
And what about the kids? Will they eventually take on the duty of predicting if there will be six more weeks of winter? Will they have to spend their lives waiting for dad to pass away before they can inherit the throne?
Unfortunately, no, Dunkel explains. Since their father is immortal, there will always be only one of him.
