Every year in the Canadian town of Wiarton, devout followers of Wiarton Willie the albino groundhog learn from the rodent if the grip of winter is loosening.
The annual celebration is part of Groundhog Day, a North American tradition (and movie of the same name) which holds that if a groundhog sees its shadow after emerging from hibernation, six weeks more of winter weather are expected.
But the world of rodent-based meteorology has been shaken by revelations that Willie, a celebrity so beloved that he has statues built in his honor, died last year – and his demise was covered up by town officials.
In a break from tradition, Willie did not appear during Wiarton’s 2021 groundhog festival, which was streamed online because of the coronavirus pandemic.
As questions swirled over the missing animal, the town put out a news release, poking fun at his disappearance.
“Is Willie dead or alive? Would you question the Easter Bunny or Santa Claus?” the town wrote. “This event is not about Willie (the groundhog) and truthfully it never has been.”
Months later, however, officials admitted to the Canadian Press that the beloved rodent had died of a tooth abscess and that the news had been withheld from the public.
(Festive woodchuck fatalities aren’t unique to Canada: on Sunday, officials in Milltown, New Jersey announced the town’s animal diviner – known as Milltown Mel – had died, only days before giving his annual prediction. And in 2014, the then New York City mayor, Bill de Blasio, dropped Staten Island Chuck during a Groundhog Day celebration. Chuck later died of internal injuries.)
But the recent saga of Willie has exposed years of scrambling and deception by city officials in the event of untimely rodent deaths.
Wiarton traces its annual festival back to the 1950s, when the early seasonal predictions were provided by a trio of groundhogs. In the 1980s, the first “Willie” appeared on the scene. He lived to 22 and was found dead only two days before Groundhog Day in 1999.
A funeral was held, shocking a crowd of children, who had not known Wille was dead.
But the body in the wood casket was an imposter – a previously stuffed groundhog was used instead.
“The smell [of the dead groundhog] was something you wouldn’t have wanted to be near,” Sam Brouwer, Willie’s caretaker from 1987 to 2002, told the Canadian press in 1999. “It would have been a closed-casket funeral.”
Four years later, two understudy animals, dubbed “Wee Willies”, were found dead. CBC reported at the time that Willie himself was implicated in the deaths. His caretaker Francesca Dobbyn did not immediately inform the town, fearing the news would generate bad press. Despite calls for her termination, Dobbyn kept her job.
In the event of a Willie dying, the town often has to scramble to find a replacement because of the distinct appearance of the white rodents.
“With [famous groundhogs like] Punxsutawney Phil and Shubenacadie Sam, I wouldn’t be surprised if they had a different groundhog every year – people don’t really notice the difference,” Wiarton’s mayor, Janice Jackson, told the Canadaland podcast in a recent interview. “But for albinos, because they are rare, and some of them are true albinos with red eyes and others have brown eyes, there is a slight difference between them.”
When Willie died in November, the town realized all groundhogs were hibernating and a new white one couldn’t be swapped. Officials improvised, having the mayor toss her hat in the air and make the prediction instead of revealing his death.
“I didn’t want our community to be stunned on the day,” said Jackson.
Wiarton’s 2022 Groundhog Day festival will once again be a virtual event. This time, a brown groundhog will be used.
