Punxsutawney Twins Get Names and New Home

Last month we noted the birth of two groundhogs, offspring of the Punxsutawney prognosticator Phil and his wife Phyllis. Now we know the kits’ genders – boy and girl – and now they have names: Shadow and Sunny, respectively.

Unlike their famous father, the babies will not grow up to be meteorologists. “These kits of his are not replacements, they're not the heir apparent,” Dan McGinley, vice president of the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club Inner Circle, tells ABC News. “Sunny and Shadow will not be part of the ceremony — it's still Phil's job. There's still only one Punxsutawney Phil.”

The groundhog family had been living in a climate-controlled burrow at the local library, but the new arrivals necessitated a move to a roomier home at Gobblers Knob.

Phil is notoriously bad at his one job, predicting the weather. An analysis of his prognostications over the years determined he was correct only about 40% of the time, a success rate that would be beaten by flipping a coin. This year the animal rights group PETA offered to send the Groundhog Club a cold coin to replace Phil, in exchange for placing him in a sanctuary.

“Of course, accuracy is the least of the reasons why it’s time for change,” PETA president Ingrid Newkirk wrote in a letter to the club in January.

 “Just as eating groundhogs is no longer part of the annual tradition, forcing a shy, sensitive animal out into the cold, waving him around overhead in front of loud crowds, and treating him like an object shouldn’t be, either.”

It is doubtful the groundhog handlers will liberate Phil and his family anytime soon. It is Phil, after all, who put Punxsutawney on the map.

Photo credit: Punxsutawney Phil via Facebook