Staten Island Chuck
(image via: Allison Meier)
Staten Island Chuck (or “Charles G. Hogg”, as he’s formally known) resides at the Staten Island Zoo and has been advising New Yorkers whether an early spring is in the offing since the mid-1980s. Chuck doesn’t always agree with Punxsutawney Phil but then again, neither does the National Weather Service.
(image via: Mike Licht)
Although the Staten Island Zoo isn’t run by municipal authorities, it’s been a loose tradition that the Mayor of New York attend Chuck’s annual Groundhog Day predictions… and by “loose”, we mean former Mayor Michael Bloomberg appeared only seven times during his twelve year term as mayor. Perhaps Bloomberg just wasn’t a groundhog fan… or vice versa: Chuck famously bit Bloomberg during his 2009 visit. No word if Bloomberg (or Chuck) received rabies shots as a precaution afterwards.
General Beauregard Lee
(image via: Vicki DeLoach)
The southern groundhog will rise again! And so he does, every February 2nd in the form of General Beauregard Lee, who resides in a miniature whitewashed plantation-style home at the Yellow River Game Ranch in Lilburn, Georgia. The rebel rodent is no dummy: his (claimed) accuracy rate is a nifty 94 percent and he’s received honorary doctorates from the University of Georgia and Georgia State University. One notable blight on the General’s resume is his failure to predict the so-called “Storm of the Century” in March of 1993. Be sure to check Beau’s Twitter feed the morning of Groundhog Day to get the lowdown on this year’s furry forecast.
