Punxsutawney Phil, the groundhog who attempts to predict spring's arrival, and his groundhog 'wife,' Phyllis, have become parents.
The Punxsutawney Groundhog Club said in a Facebook post that Phyllis recently gave birth to two healthy babies. It did not specify their gender or give names for either one.
“We’re pleased to announce that Punxsutawney Phil has had his first children; we believe there are two baby groundhogs and that Phil and Phyllis have started a family,” Thomas Dunkel, president of a tuxedo-clad group called The Inner Circle that carries on the groundhog tradition each year, said at a news conference. “We’re pleased about it, and I talked to Phil with my cane, which lets me speak Groundhogese, and Phil could not be more excited that he started a family.”
Dunkel said a club member discovered the babies Saturday when he came to feed their parents fruit and vegetables.
Phil emerges from his burrow each year the morning of Feb. 2. If he sees his shadow, tradition holds, there will be six more weeks of winter. This year, he did not see his shadow, heralding an early spring.
Phil and Phyllis live in climate-controlled quarters at the Punxsutawney Memorial Library.
But like most growing families, they now need larger digs. The club plans to move them to a larger home on the library's grounds.
