Groundhog Day: The Dark Side of Punxsutawney Phil’s Shadow

As February rapidly approaches, so, too, does a popular “holiday” that occurs every year on February 2nd: Groundhog Day. As the folklore dictates, Groundhog Day stems from a Christian tradition called Candlemas.

Each year, at the midpoint between the winter solstice and the spring equinox, churches would distribute candles to help people survive the remaining winter days. According to tradition, winter would continue longer if the weather on Candlemas Day appeared sunny and clear, but spring would come sooner if the weather was cloudy.

In Germany, those who celebrated Candlemas (many of whom were farmers relying on animal behaviors to help predict the weather) looked to a hedgehog for communicating these weather predictions. Thus, if the hedgehog cast a shadow on Candlemas Day, winter would continue for six more weeks. When the tradition was brought to the United States in the late 1800s by German settlers, the hedgehog mascot was swapped out with the U.S.-native groundhog. Today, the tradition is similar: when the groundhog emerges from his burrow and sees his shadow, six more weeks of winter lie ahead. If he doesn’t see his shadow, we will be rewarded with an early spring.

The Rise of Punxsutawney Phil

The first official Groundhog Day was celebrated in the U.S. on February 2, 1887, in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. As the holiday persisted in the U.S., the folklore surrounding Groundhog Day also expanded. Now, there is one groundhog character that symbolizes this tradition: Punxsutawney Phil. The lore around Punxsutawney Phil claims that a magical elixir enables the same groundhog to live eternally, and the same animal has been making weather predictions since the tradition first began in 1887. While the true number of Punxsutawney Phils used since the tradition began 138 years ago remains unknown, based on the average lifespan of a groundhog in captivity (~10 years), we can estimate that at least 13 groundhogs have been used so far to keep the Punxsutawney Phil mascot alive.

Phil and his “wife,” Phyllis, live together in a climate and light-controlled enclosure next to the Punxsutawney Memorial Library, which is visible to visitors through a window inside the library. Unlike most groundhogs, who hibernate through the winter, Phil and Phyllis are reportedly kept in an environment with enough light and heat to keep them unnaturally awake for Groundhog Day on February 2nd every year, despite this practice being completely contrary to their instinctual behaviors.

Each year on February 2nd, he is taken to Gobbler’s Knob, the Groundhog Day ceremonial grounds, where he makes his annual Groundhog Day “prediction.” Prior to 1993, the Groundhog Day event in Punxsutawney attracted crowds of approximately 2,000 people. The popularity of the film Groundhog Day, however, brought significantly more attention to the event, with annual crowds rising to 10,000–20,000. The disruptive environment at this lively, noisy celebration is highly stressful for Phil as a wild animal.

Phil’s exploitative job-related “duties” do not only occur on Groundhog Day; in 1995, a previous version of Phil was flown to Chicago for a guest appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show, which aired on Groundhog Day that year. Phil was also featured in a 2002 episode of the children’s animated series Stanley, titled “Searching for Spring.” Phil was later used as the main attraction in “Groundhog Day,” the 2005 episode of the MTV series Viva La Bam.

The Groundhog Day Tradition Does Not Justify Exploitation

It does not seem that Punxsutawney Phil’s yearly “weather prediction,” which occurs one day each year, justifies keeping countless groundhogs in captivity for a frivolous and baseless tradition. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Phil’s predictions have only been right 30% of the time over the past decade.

Further, the captive keeping of Phil and Phyllis has led to the creation of more lives in captivity: in 2024, the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club Inner Circle of Pennsylvania announced the “unexpected surprise” of two babies that resulted from keeping Phil and Phyllis together. Apparently, they did not realize that groundhogs in captivity could reproduce. The babies still live with their parents in the enclosure next to the PA library.

Despite their stocky build, in the wild, groundhogs are avid tree climbers and swimmers. They developed the nickname “whistlepig” because when alarmed, they use a high-pitched whistle to alert the rest of the colony to a potential threat. They live in a variety of diverse terrains, from deep valleys to alpine tundra, and are exceptional diggers that use their claws to create an intricate system of underground burrows. Their burrow systems have between two and ten entrances, and even typically include a separate “bathroom” chamber. None of this is replicable in captivity.

If you think it is wrong to celebrate the exploitative captive keeping of Punxsutawney Phil, Phyllis, and their babies, please join us in speaking out against the Groundhog Day festivities involving any live wild animals in efforts to end this cruel and unnecessary tradition to keep future groundhogs where they belong: in the wild.

Keep Wildlife in the Wild,
Devan