This belief in an ancient race and the Pennsylvania Dutch superstition of predicting the weather based on whether or not a hedgehog saw his shadow on Candlemas merged to become Groundhog Day. Groundhogs Groundhogs, also known as Woodchucks, Marmots or Whistlepigs, are members of the rodent family. The can weigh from 8 to 14 pounds and are nearly 2 feet in length. Groundhogs live all over North America, from Alaska and British Columbia down to the Eastern United States. They live most of their lives underground and hibernate each winter for about 5 months.
Groundhogs are herbivores and eat leaves, clover, flower stems, tree bark and berries.
In 1887, Clymer H. Freas, city editor of the Punxsutawney Spirit Newspaper was inspired by a local tradition of hunting and barbecuing groundhogs and dubbed the participants the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club. Year after year the story was embellished and Punxsutawney Phil became the official weather forecaster for the nation. Click Here for a list of all of Phil's recorded predictions since 1887. If the Groundhog sees his shadow, he is frightened back into his burrow to sleep through 6 more weeks of winter.