Canada’s Star Groundhog Misses His Day: He’s Dead

The crowd at this country’s top Groundhog Day festival got worse news Tuesday than a bad weather forecast: It learned that star groundhog Wiarton Willie had died.

Some children among the 200 people burst into tears.

“He died from old age. He hasn’t been well,” said Tara Wilson, a spokeswoman for the municipal office in Wiarton, an Ontario town of 2,600 people about 125 miles northwest of Toronto.

In fact, Willie died of natural causes Sunday night, but his death was not disclosed until Tuesday’s ceremony.

“We didn’t really know what to do,” said Sam Brouwer, Willie’s caretaker for the past 10 years. “We were absolutely devastated.”

Brouwer said that the albino Willie, who was lying in a pine coffin for a public viewing Tuesday morning, had succumbed at the age of 22, much longer than most groundhogs survive in the wild. He had been in failing health when he went into hibernation last fall.

This area has had a Groundhog Festival for 43 years, and Willie had been the main event for a decade. A search will be conducted for a successor, to be named Wiarton Willie Jr.

According to folklore, if the sun was out when Willie popped his head up from wintering on Groundhog Day, that meant six more weeks of cold weather. If it was a gray day, with no shadow, that meant an early spring.

Although Willie wasn’t on hand to make a final weather prediction, local officials said the “spirit” of Willie indicated that there will be an early spring.

His handler said Willie was right 90% of the time, but not everybody was happy. A few years ago, Willie got death threats when he predicted that an especially bad winter would last six more weeks.

The U.S. counterpart of Wiarton Willie is Punxsutawney Phil, who emerged from his Pennsylvania home early Tuesday as a crowd of 25,000 people watched.

The Punxsutawney event has been held for 114 years.

Phil failed to see his shadow, signaling that spring is right around the corner.