Groundhog Day went on without a groundhog Tuesday, as Connecticut’s official hedgehog, Phoebe, stood in for her friend, Chuckles.
Speaking a dialect of groundhogese, Phoebe whispered into Mayor Jay Moran’s ear at the Lutz Children’s Museum in Manchester, predicting another six weeks of winter after seeing her shadow.
The state’s official groundhog, Chuckles X, died in October. Moran said museum staff found a successor, but that woodchuck soon died also.
Museum interim Director Kate Morrissey, however, noted Tuesday that Europeans had used hedgehogs to predict a longer winter or early spring. Immigrants to America found no hedgehogs here, so they used groundhogs.