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    Wiarton Willie, Ontarios beliebtes Wettervorhersage-Murmeltier, ist tot

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    8. mcburloak on

      I have a cat that moves about once a Spring, perhaps he can be pressed into service for this annual ritual

    9. MmeLaRue on

      The original Wiarton Willie was an albino; finding a new one who even approaches the original will be tricksome.

      Sam’s got you covered, though.

    13. ManSharkBear on

      Poor little guy, now he is a 6 ft under ground-hog.

      We could petition to have him taxidermied into a sundial so we will always know what time it is when he sees his shadow!

      Or clone him?

    14. sickwobsm8 on

      I have a bastard groundhog in my yard that they can kidnap (hognap?). He keeps eating my vegetable garden.

    15. Volderon90 on

      Dude literally died as soon as he saw the forecast for next week and said nope I’m outta here 

    16. geebiebeegee on

      At a certain point one might wonder if the condition and care of these animals is lacking. I think we all love groundhog day festivals but if they consistently barely survive to the day…..is this maybe too big a responsibility for this little town? I’d hate to think their ill treatment of our prognosticators are prolonging winter every year.

    17. nuxwcrtns on

      This is a tragic af. My dude predicted an early spring this year. Thank you for your service, Wiarton.

    23. CatlovesMoca on

      This sent me down a rabbit hole. I didn’t know that Wiarton Willie was basically a job title filled by random groundhogs. Or that some people passed off other groundhogs as Wiarton Willie. So at a meet and greet, you could be meeting any groundhog.

      Also gotta love that CBC compiled a salacious list of scandals related to Wiarton Willies:

      Over the decades, there have been controversies involving Willie:

      * In 1999, the groundhog was found dead just days before he was supposed to hit the stage for his prediction. A funeral was held but a different body was used because the groundhog had died weeks earlier and the body wasn’t fit to be on display.

      * In 2003, there were calls for Willie’s caretaker to be fired after it was found she had covered up the deaths of two fill-in groundhogs that would have inherited the title of Willie had the current one died. The two understudies had been living in the same den as Willie. Groundhogs are instinctively territorial, leading to suspicions that Willie had killed his roommates.

      * In 2017, another Willie died and his understudy, „Wee Willie,“ assumed the role.

      * In 2020, another Willie died but his death wasn’t announced until November 2021. The February 2021 prediction was made by the then mayor, Janice Jackson, tossing a hat into the snow.

      * In 2022, a brown groundhog was named as the next Wiarton Willie. He was replaced in 2023 by the now-late white Willie.

      I didn’t grow up in Canada so groundhog day wasn’t something I was especially tuned into. I also found out other groundhogs‘ names are just their unpaid job title (Phil, Fred la Marmotte). I thought they gave each groundhog a unique name but that’s simply not true.

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