Violet the Vancouver Island marmot wasn’t swayed by other weathercasting wildlife predicting an early spring on Friday — Groundhog Day — and cast her vote for six more weeks of winter.
It’s the third year in a row the Island rodent has called for winter to carry on, rather than for the quick arrival of better weather.
She took over forecasting duties after the death of another marmot, also named Violet, and has an impressive track record.
“Her last two predictions have been spot on,” said Adam Taylor, executive director of the Marmot Recovery Foundation.
The current Violet was carefully taken out of her artificial nest box Friday morning at the Tony Barrett Mount Washington Marmot Recovery Centre, where she is hibernating.
Official marmot handler and veterinarian Malcolm McAdie made the shadow call, without the flash and ceremony that tends to happen in other places on Groundhog Day.
In fact, Violet did the whole thing in her sleep.
“The whole hope is that we don’t actually wake Violet up,” Taylor said.
She and other marmots at the centre are regularly taken out and weighed during their indoor hibernation to ensure they’re in good health, he said.
Several will be released into the wild next year, which Taylor said is part of the process of trying to get the species back to sustainable numbers.
He said it’s fun to join the Groundhog Day tradition and give some profile to Vancouver Island marmots, which he described as one of the most-endangered mammal species on Earth.
Legend tells us that on Groundhog Day — Feb. 2 — a groundhog that comes out of its burrow foretells an early spring if it doesn’t cast a shadow. But if it’s sunny enough for the groundhog’s shadow to appear, six more weeks of winter is on the way.
Canada’s other furry forecasters, all of them groundhogs — including Ontario’s Wiarton Willie, Nova Scotia’s Shubenacadie Sam and Quebec’s Fred la Marmotte — went shadowless on Friday, indicating spring is near — as did their American counterpart, Pennsylvania’s Punxsutawney Phil.
Non-rodent Lucy the Lobster, a relative newcomer in her sixth year of prognostication, saw her shadow in Halifax and agrees with Violet that winter isn’t going anywhere.
As for Violet, she and her species have had some promising news of late, Taylor said.
“Last year was a very good year for the marmot,” he said. “The wild population increased from just over 200 to just over 300, so we’re really excited about that.”
Taylor said that wild marmots live in sub-alpine meadows, usually about 1,000 metres in elevation, and are spread around the central Island.
Their dwindling numbers were first discovered in the 1990s and led to the establishment of the Marmot Recovery Foundation in 1999.
— with a file from The Canadian Press.
