Urban Oyster - NYC Walking Tours

There are few things that will get me out of bed at 5:30 in the morning to drive out to Staten Island in the freezing cold. Apparently, a weather-predicting rodent is one of those things.

We made the pre-dawn trip across the Verrazano Bridge to see Staten Island Chuck, the city's official Groundhog Day mascot, at the Staten Island Zoo. Every year, Chuck is rousted from his lair by the mayor and asked whether or not he saw his shadow. The ceremony included a few brief speeches from city officials, who seemed to take great joy in rattling off corny jokes about Mayor Bloomberg's mishap last year, when Chuck took a small bite out of his finger when the mayor was trying the extricate him from his house. Though several speakers talked about what a great borough Staten Island is, no one made the obvious pun about the fact that they were about to coax a groundhog out of his "burrow." Now that's comedy gold.

The fracas last year, and the resulting media attention, did much to improve attendance this year; according to one reporter we talked to at the zoo, there were far more cameras and reporters on hand than at previous ceremonies (you can see a report from NY1 here). I guess they were all chasing the story every cub reporter dreams about, "Groundhog Bites Mayor." That's the stuff of Pulitzers and Local Emmys. Aside from the reporters and civil servants, we appeared to be the only adults there who weren't accompanying small children.

To avoid a repeat biting, the mayor sported a pair of heavy-duty gloves, and an expert animal handler was waiting in the wings should Chuck get frisky again. The prediction went off without incident, and the mayor did not have to use the boxing gloves that were given to him by the zoo's director for his "rematch" with Chuck. According to the mayor's translation of Goundhogese (the language in which all groundhogs relate their meteorological knowledge), Chuck did not see his shadow, meaning spring is fast approaching. This was in direct contradiction of the statement made by Punxsutawney Phil, easily the world's most famous groundhog, who did see his shadow, meaning much more winter is ahead.

But the field of groundhog weathermen is far larger than just Chuck and Phil – there are no less than 45 groundhogs across North America that are stirred from their winter slumber every February 2nd by men in silly hats, according to Groundhog Central. The two groundhogs on Long Island, Holtsville Hal and Malverne Mel, both called for six more weeks of winter; combine that with Wednesday's snow storm, and it looks like Chuck may have botched the call this year. Many joked last year that Chuck's bite was a rebuke to the mayor for seeking changes to the city charter that would allow him to run for a third term. Perhaps the canny rodent has found a much more effective political weapon against Bloomberg than his teeth – passing him bogus information to make him look bad. Though it could just be that Bloomberg's Goundhogese is getting rusty.

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