At Ohio State, you did your undergraduate research thesis on the nocturnal activity of groundhogs in an urban park. How did you get interested in groundhogs and Groundhog Day?
I grew up in Lakewood, on the west side of Cleveland, and we had groundhogs in some of the parks. Even as a young kid I was fascinated by them.
 
With Groundhog Day, I started out half-joking, celebrating with friends. It became kind of a tradition, and as I was teaching, I would always celebrate it in some silly way with my students. It’s a way to make the semester fun. It’s often a few weeks into the quarter or semester after coming off winter break, and everyone needs a little levity then. Groundhog Day provides that.
 
It became a nice educational tool as well. Groundhogs are excellent ecological systems to work on, and everyone is familiar with them.”

You post a number of Groundhog Day results on your Web site. How did you decide which groundhogs to follow?
There are a lot of them out there being tracked. There are seven or eight that have been around for 15 years or so, and then there are a lot of newcomers as zoos and conservation parks and nature preserves are getting involved.
 
Basically, I go with the groundhogs that have been around the longest, though they’re often not the same groundhog. I started with Punxsutawney Phil, the most famous one because of the movie Groundhog Day.

Why do groundhogs always seem to have silly names like Shubenacadie Sam or General Beauregard Lee?
Most of the names are related to the towns or regions they come from. I think it’s all part of the fun and the quirkiness of the holiday. It is amazing, though. I think the average number of letters in the name of a groundhog far exceeds even my own name.

What are your Groundhog Day rituals?
I’ve watched the groundhogs in person a couple of times. Now that I’m in the desert here in Arizona, I don’t do it directly, but there are some Webcams that I watch.
 
I get up early that day, before I can see my shadow, and I check all the newscasts. You can get video footage on the Web in almost real time. Everyone posts the results of their groundhog almost immediately. I think there’s a bit of competition to see who can post their results first.
 
I know folks who throw Groundhog Day parties and watch the movie Groundhog Day over and over that day. I think there are a number of biology and zoology majors around the world who do those kinds of things.

Are there Groundhog Day souvenirs?
Most of the major groundhogs now have quite a bit of paraphernalia associated with them. It’s become a bit of a cottage industry.
 
Some of the sillier things I’ve seen are a variety of takes on the old Davy Crockett coonskin cap, but with fake, stuffed groundhogs on top of them.
 
One of my favorites is based on an albino groundhog up in Ontario called Wiarton Willie. They sell these white stuffed animals of Wiarton Willie, and I’ve used them as Christmas presents a few times.
 If you watch the value of Groundhog Day–related things on eBay, prices skyrocket the day of or the day before. I know to buy things during other times.

Do you have a favorite groundhog joke?
“Why did the groundhog look depressed when leaving his den to check his shadow? He was having a bad lair day.”

Living in Tucson, where triple-digit temperatures are common during the summer, do you secretly root for a late spring?
I do enjoy sitting back on an 80-degree morning and watching Punxsutawney Phil coming out, with everyone bundled up around him. I think I have the best of both worlds.

Learn more: www.ag.arizona.edu~squirrel/groundhogday.htm

Interview by ERIK BATTENBERG.