In my Nature Notebook...

"Groundhog Day," Andrew Wyeth

Groundhog Day

"...Early tribesmen credited various animals with the ability to forecast weather. The Egyptians relied on bears.  Early Europeans turned to wolves for prophecies. In England they put their faith in  otters and badgers. Early English colonists in America, never skilled in identification, mistook woodchucks for badgers, which often were called groundhogs in England. The badger was the Candlemas forecaster in England, so the American marmot inherited the prophet's mantle. And just to round out the tangle of identities, the name 'woodchuck' came from the Algonquin wejac, which meant fisher, a cousin of the weasel." Hal Borland