Did N.Y. mayor kill groundhog by dropping it? How spry is a groundhog?

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio let a groundhog slip out of his hands ... and onto the ground. Days later, it was dead of internal injuries. 

The incident is becoming a 2014 Groundhog Day Tragedy and could live in infamy. But how likely is it that a fall of a few feet could have killed the Staten Island Zoo's "Chuck" (also known as Charlotte; she was masquerading)?

The New York Post ran with the story, saying the mayor, who held the animal (briefly) during Feb. 2 shadow-checking festivities, had blood on his hands. The zoo was involved in a cover-up, telling staff to keep their lips zipped on Charlotte's death and keep the mayor in the dark, the paper claimed.

The Los Angeles Times tried, without luck, to get the Staten Island Zoo on the phone.

But as you consider the groundhog puzzle, here are just a few things to consider:

1) Groundhogs are part of the squirrel family.  More specifically, they belong to the marmot group -- big ground squirrels.

2) Groundhogs can climb trees. No word on how they fare when falling out of trees. Still, Mayor De Blasio may be tall at 6 feet 5, but he's no tree.  Charlotte fell, front paws first, from about chest height.  If the mayor wasn't wearing heels, the animal probably dropped about 5 feet. Groundhogs, by the way, are also decent swimmers.

3) Following the fall, Charlotte was gathered up again, looking bright eyed and squirmy.

4) The Staten Island Zoo insists the mayor's hands (or the awkward yellow gloves he was wearing at the time) are clean. A zoo spokesman told the Associated Press that the handoff from the animal's keeper to the mayor was "a complete bungle." But a check-up after the fall revealed no trauma to the groundhog, and she wasn't in pain.

The internal injuries came sometime the night before Charlotte was found dead Feb. 9, the zoo claims.  OK, maybe that seems odd.  But it's that mystery, plus the chance to make political jokes, keeping the story alive on social media. Check out some of the action below.  

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