Groundhog Day

 

Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow today which means six more weeks of winter.

This annual tradition comes from an old superstition of the Pennsylvania Dutch.

The lore itself comes from Germany, where a badger would determine on Candlemas if winter would be prolonged.  It had originally been a bear, but as they became scarce, the story was altered.

Groundhogs, badgers, and bears are all hibernating animals (to varying degrees), so we're just reading their behavior for weather prediction.  Although Punxsutawney is more of a show than a nature event, and there are doubts regarding the accuracy of the whole thing.  (Over 120 years, he's been correct about 39% of the time).

Groundhogs are one of the few species who enter a true hibernation - which means metabolic depression, lowered body temperature, as well as slowed breathing and heart rate.  The groundhog will burrow below the frost line and remain there for up to three months.

Bears hibernate to a lesser degree as their body temperature doesn't typically drop very much.

Badgers, on the other hand, enter into cycles of torpor during the coldest times, which are states of physical inactivity, but typically only last around 29 hours.

Groundhogs are also known as woodchucks, which comes from the Algonquian name for the animal, wuchak.

Wiki