NEW YORK — They’ve bitten their handlers, refused to budge from their beds and lost their shadow-casting jobs to potbellied pigs. And it turns out, not all groundhogs are really that good at predicting the weather.
Not even Bill Murray as a movie weatherman escaped a couple of nips from the furry rodents on the set of 1993’s “Groundhog Day.”
“Of course, the groundhog’s most glaring offense is that its legendary weather predictions are complete bunk,” said Linda Lombardi, a former zookeeper who has a blog and a book called “Animals Behaving Badly.”
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration analyzed the forecasts of groundhog prognosticators from 1988 to 2010 and concluded there was no correlation between predictions and the length of winter weather in a given year.
As always, the biggest Groundhog Day ruckus (today will be the 126th) centers on prima donna Punxsutawney Phil, who has not kept his pointy nose clean of misdeeds.
“Phil is not a pet. Phil is truly not as warm and cuddly as perhaps you would want him to be. Phil is, in fact, a wild animal,” said Mike Johnston, vice president of Phil’s Inner Circle in Punxsutawney, Pa., where Groundhog Day began.
“He will make his feelings known with a nip, maybe a couple of nips. If his handler continues to do things that displease him, he’s likely to nail you,” Johnston said.
Sound familiar, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg?
Charles G. Hogg, a.k.a. Staten Island Chuck, chomped on the mayor’s left index finger in 2009 when Bloomberg tried to coax him into the open using an ear of corn.
“We try not to speak of it,” said Mary Lee Montalvo, a spokeswoman for Chuck’s stomping ground, the Staten Island Zoo. “They have tried to make up. They’ve done a pretty good job.”
