WORCESTER—Worcester Mayor Joe Petty gets asked a lot of tough questions. But on Friday, Feb. 2, he had a quick answer to this one: How long will this winter last?
Not much longer, he told an audience at the EcoTarium. Of course, he didn’t pull the response out of his ceremonial top hat. He relied on the EcoTarium’s resident groundhog, Cornelia, who was called on to become a four-legged weather forecaster on Groundhog Day.
Cornelia, the mayor reported, was unable to observe her shadow that morning, which comes as little surprise to anyone who has slogged through the grey, gloomy weather that has enveloped the region lately.
But that is good news for warm weather enthusiasts: The lack of sunlight portends an early spring, or so the tradition goes.
And that is a welcome development, State Sen. Michael Moore told the audience that gathered to hear Cornelia’s prognostication. Reduced snowfalls mean less money needed to clean the roads. And fewer snow days will subsequently be called, although that didn’t necessarily bring cheers from youngsters on hand.
Cornelia was the star of the show but she played coy for the cameras, opting to stay hidden away in a box in her enclosure.
In the wild, groundhogs hibernate in the winter, although Cornelia only goes into a “sleepy mode’’ in winter because she lives inside, EcoTarium Manager of Zoology Kelsey Castrogiovanni said. The animals are “super active’’ in the spring and summer.
Like most of her fellow animals at the EcoTarium, Cornelia is unable to live in the wild. She was found in Ohio several years ago when she was sick with pneumonia and very thin, Castrogiovanni said. She recuperated with the support of a wildlife rehabilitator, who nursed her back to health but determined that she could not be returned to the wild because she no longer feared people, dogs or cats.
Without that fear, the rehabilitator determined, she would be extremely vulnerable in the wild.
So instead, she was sent to the EcoTarium, where she has lived since April 2021.
As a solitary animal in the wild, she lives a relatively low-key life at the EcoTarium.
Except for the one day a year when she is in the public eye, even if she still does her best to dodge the paparazzi.
“Today is a big day for meteorology,’’ EcoTarium President and CEO Noreen Johnson Smith said, when The Weather Channel is replaced by Cornelia TV.
“Today we let the groundhog tell us what the weather is.’’
Sandy Quadros Bowles is a journalist with more than 40 years of experience in print and online journalism. In her free time, she enjoys traveling, reading and interacting with any and all animals that cross her path. She can be reached at sqbfreelance@gmail.com
