Wild Animal Wednesday! Rodents in Dissagreement over Groundhog Day!

Yesterday February 2nd was Groundhog Day.  The classic weather man Punxsutawney Phil out of Pennsylvania predicted six more weeks of winter when he saw his shadow.  Beardsley Bart (from the Connecticut's Beardsley Zoo) has a different prediction.  Read the story below from the Connecticut Post about this little disagreement.  I love Phil and all, but this time, I really hope Beardsley Bart is right!  Bring on the sunshine!  (Beardsley Bart photo courtesy of Shannon Calvert)

"BRIDGEPORT -- Punxsutawney Phil predicted six more weeks of winter weather Tuesday morning, but a ground-dwelling rodent at Connecticut's Beardsley Zoo begs to differ.

The zoo doesn't have a groundhog -- known more commonly in these parts as a woodchuck -- but it does have a colony of their close relatives, the prairie dog.

Beardsley Bart, the Prognosticating Prairie Dog, failed to see his shadow at the zoo Tuesday morning, thanks to a bank of clouds that rolled in before zoo workers could awaken Bart from his long winter's nap, according to Gregg Dancho, the zoo director.  This means there should be only two or three more weeks of cold weather, Dancho said.

"Beardsley Bart, the Prognosticating Prairie Dog -- he insists we use his full name -- has a much better record of accuracy than that groundhog in Pennsylvania," Dancho said. "He's been doing this for the last 10 years."

Dancho said that Bart, the oldest and wisest of the prairie dogs at the zoo, "likes to sleep in," so it was difficult for the zoo's team of animal experts to get him out of his den in time to upstage Punxsutawney Phil, the much more highly publicized groundhog in Pennsylvania, who saw his shadow Tuesday morning, forecasting the lengthier winter.

"By the time he got up, he had no shadow, so we're saying that spring's just around the corner," Dancho said of Beardsley Bart. "No white Easter this year. We're just lucky he's not an early riser."

Bart is one of about 25 black-tailed prairie dogs at the zoo. The animals typically live in large colonies, or "cities," on the High Plains.  While woodchucks typically weigh between 4 and 9 pounds, Bart tips the scales at about 3 pounds.

Phil's appearance in Gobbler's Knob, Pa., about 65 miles northeast of Pittsburgh, was witnessed not long after sunrise Tuesday by more than 1,000 curious onlookers and members of the news media.  It's a tradition that dates back to 1887.

But only a few Beardsley Zoo employees were on had to witness Bart's sleepy-eyed crawl from his cozy subterranean den, Dancho said."