A live version of Buckeye Chuck will return for Groundhog Day in 2024 after the use of a taxidermied version in 2023. Credit: Mark Pynes | pennlive.com (via TNS)
[Original caption: Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow this morning at Gobbler’s Knob on Groundhog Day indicating six more weeks of winter, in Punxsutawney, PA, Feb 2, 2022.]
It’s Groundhog Day 2022, and the sun has risen in Marion, Ohio, though the cloud-filled sky made it hard to tell.
“We’ve got quite a crowd gathered, and we’re just about ready for Buckeye Chuck’s historic announcement,” WMRN-AM host Paul James bellowed into his podium-mounted microphone.
Sprung from his tabletop wire cage, Chuck’s handler carried him out of the garage, maintaining her grip despite his efforts to wriggle out of her arms. She paused on the driveway, in front of a tripod-mounted camera and a glaringly bright light.
“Buckeye Chuck, Ohio’s official weather reporting groundhog, does not see his shadow, proclaiming spring in Ohio is just around the corner!” James roared.
Several dozen onlookers cheered. Little did they know that it would be two years until a live groundhog would again deliver Ohio’s forecast before the crowd.
In 2023, animal welfare concerns grounded Chuck, replacing him with a stuffed version. The real groundhog is back in 2024 and ready to make his weather prediction, though not everyone feels a rodent’s place is in the spotlight.
Groundhog Day first cast its shadow — or lack thereof — in 1887, carrying on an even older European tradition, according to Jim Nemet, director of wildlife at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History’s Ralph Perkins II Wildlife Center & Woods Garden. It began as an outgrowth of the Christian feast day Candlemas and recognition of the midpoint between the winter solstice and the spring equinox.
Pennsylvania’s Punxsutawney Phil, now in his 138th year of prognostication, is the holiday’s best-known figurehead, but Ohio got in on the action in 1979. That year, the state general assembly designated Buckeye Chuck as the state’s official groundhog.
His namesake was Charlie Evers, WMRN’s nature-loving on-air personality who spearheaded the campaign to get Chuck recognized. Since then, Chuck has predicted the coming of spring from his spot in Marion, and the event has attracted onlookers from as far away as Hawaii and Washington.
WMRN sports director Eric Mosley, host of this year’s ceremony, estimated that there have been 15 to 20 Buckeye Chucks. Perhaps none have assumed the job under a greater controversy cloud than the current occupant of the job, whose real name is Murray.
Murray arrives a year after People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, or PETA, petitioned for the end of the tradition, based on the USDA’s multiple citations against groundhog supplier Kokas Exotics for violating the Animal Welfare Act. PETA claimed the festivities, which constitute “dragging groundhogs out of hibernation and displaying them as props in front of rowdy crowds,” were animal cruelty.
“Groundhogs are individuals and they feel pain and they’re shy animals who right now should be hibernating,” PETA spokesperson Klayton Rutherford said. “They shouldn’t be dragged out into crowds in front of flashing cameras; that is a terrifying situation.”
The group summarized its position with a billboard across from the radio station that stated, “I’m me, not a meteorologist,” bearing a photo of a groundhog and an entreaty to “chuck this tired old tradition.’”
Ohio’s 2023 ceremony instead featured the original Buckeye Chuck — in taxidermied form. Not wanting to deprive the audience of a live groundhog’s prognostication, a mic-carrying Mosley scoured nearby woods for burrows with a groundhog that could render its prediction.
But the change was temporary. WMRN contacted the Ohio Department of Natural Resources in search of groundhogs who were familiar with and licensed for educational exhibitions, and Murray fit the bill.
“We want to make sure it’s in the best interests of the groundhog,” Chris Kelly, iHeartMedia’s vice president of programming for Ashland, Mansfield, Marion and Defiance, said.
Murray’s path to stardom began in Trumbull County, where a family found the orphaned pup on the side of the road and running toward cars in 2023. They released him in the wild near their home, but he kept returning to their property, so they took him to a nearby animal rehabilitation clinic, which determined Murray was too comfortable with humans to survive in the wild.
Perkins Wildlife Center agreed to take him in.
Murray now spends his days eating his favorite foods of potatoes and kale and getting ready for his first Groundhog Day ceremony.
To prepare, Murray’s handlers take him on practice drives and work to desensitize him to noise, smells and crowds. One task not part of the prep: waking him up from hibernation. Because of his steady diet, Murray’s metabolism doesn’t slow down, allowing him to remain awake through the winter.
PETA, however, still objects, with a petition for a “groundhog-free” alternative that’s gathered almost 26,000 signatures.
“Tradition is never an excuse for cruelty,” Rutherford insists.
Back in Cleveland, wildlife specialist Kelsie Zimmerer said that Chuck is ultimately in charge. If he shows signs of stress or discomfort – such as appetite loss or freezing and “looking around intensely” – they will remove him from the event.
Zimmerer is optimistic that Murray will be keen to take part.
“He likes to come out and participate, and he is very comfortable with that,” she said.
Hopefully, he is equally comfortable carrying Ohioans’ hopes for an early spring on his tiny shoulders.
