B.C.'s groundhogs are too sleepy to predict the end of winter, so this stuffed animal will do the job

A B.C. wildlife centre has turned to a stuffed animal to predict the end of winter this Groundhog Day because all of the real animals are too sleepy to do the job.

The grounds surrounding the Allan Brooks Nature Centre in B.C.'s North Okanagan Valley near Vernon are home to many yellow-bellied marmots, a type of groundhog found throughout southwestern Canada. 

That would make it the perfect place for a Groundhog Day celebration if not for the fact that, come Feb. 2, they're all still hibernating underground.

"We're not going to wake them up," said centre manager Cherly Hood. "As a nature centre, we feel they should be sleeping at this time."

Instead, the centre is using Okanagan Okie, a stuffed animal dubbed the "mayor of Marmot City" to draw attention to the work it does educating residents about wildlife and habitat preservation in the Okanagan — including the region's many marmots.

"It's a bit of fun," Hood said.

'Who doesn't like to sleep in?'

Groundhog Day celebrations are major events in other parts of North America. The most well-known of the real animals to do the job is in Punxsutawney, Pa., which draws up to 20,000 visitors annually eager to find out if the city's official groundhog will see its shadow, thus predicting another six weeks of winter — or, if no shadow is seen, an early spring.

In Canada, similar celebrations are held with Ontario's Wiarton Willie, Nova Scotia's Shubenacadie Sam and Quebec's Fred la Marmotte.

There are other fakes as well: Manitoba's Merv is a puppet while Alberta's Balzac Billy is a six-foot tall sunglass wearing mascot who uses his thumb to check for a shadow.

There has been at least one other attempt to add a B.C. groundhog to that list. On Vancouver Island, the Marmot Recovery Foundation gave the job to Van Island Violet, an endangered Vancouver Island marmot who lives on Mount Washington.

But, like the yellow-bellied marmots of Vernon, Violet tends to be asleep on Feb. 2, which, as the centre says, makes it difficult to see her shadow.

"This makes sense of course, and highlights a danger of asking a groundhog in the first place," the foundation tweeted last year. "More winter just means a sleep-in for the marmots, and who doesn't like to sleep in?"