Shubenacadie Sam
{{Short description|Groundhog in Nova Scotia, Canada}}
Shubenacadie Sam is a female Canadian groundhog who lives at the Shubenacadie Wildlife Park in the town of Shubenacadie, Nova Scotia. Every February 2, on Groundhog Day, Sam's shadow is closely observed at 08:00 AST to make the traditional prediction whether there will be an early spring. Due to Nova Scotia's Atlantic Time Zone, Sam makes the first Groundhog Day prediction in North America.[http://gov.ns.ca/news/details.asp?id=20100128002 "Shubenacadie Sam to Make Annual Prediction" Nova Scotia Government Dept. of Natural Resources Press Release Jan. 28, 2010]
The prediction ceremony draws an early-morning festive crowd of about 200 families and visitors to the wildlife park, sometimes heralded by a groundhog mascot, bagpiper and town crier.[http://www.novanewsnow.com/living/2016/1/29/shubenacadie-sam-gearing-up-for-his-big-4420394.html Raissa Tetanish, "Shubenacadie Sam gearing up for his big day", Truro Daily News, February 1, 2016] The wildlife park, usually only open on weekends in the winter, changes its seasonal hours to open especially for the annual ritual.[https://www.saltwire.com/atlantic-canada/news/shubenacadie-sam-predicts-an-early-spring-100934849/ Nicole Munro, "Shubenacadie Sam Predicts an Early Spring", Halifax Herald, Saltwire News, Feb. 2, 2023] Shubenacadie Sam predicted a long winter in 2025.[https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/shubenacadie-sam-weather-prediction-1.7448400 "Shubenacadie Sam Predicts Six more weeks of winter", CBC News, Feb. 2, 2025]
History
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Nova Scotian Groundhog Day traditions arrived with German Foreign Protestant immigrants in the 1750s who settled around Lunenburg where the day was known as "Daks Day" (from the German dachs for badger) after the belief that badgers could predict the coming of spring on February 2.{{cite thesis |last=Wilson |first=Harry |date=1959 |title=The dialect of Lunenburg County, Nova Scotia: a study of the English of the county, with reference to its sources, preservation of relics, and vestiges of bilingualism |url=https://www.proquest.com/openview/d0a3a8fd88a97d3bea7b2b6103492837/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=18750&diss=y |degree=PhD |publisher=University of Michigan|page=52|access-date=February 3, 2024}} {{citation |last=Poteet |first=Lewis J. |title=The South Shore Phrase Book |edition=New, revised, and expanded |place=Hantsport |publisher=Lancelot Press |year=2004 |isbn=9780595311941 |orig-year=1988 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=z1wyJRyDk3UC&pg=PT36 |access-date=December 26, 2017 |archive-date=August 2, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200802184805/https://books.google.com/books?id=z1wyJRyDk3UC&pg=PT36 |url-status=live }} The Shubenacadie Sam tradition at the wildlife park began about 1987 and differs from most other famous groundhogs as he is not woken from hibernation for Groundhog Day.{{Cite web |url=http://novanewsnet.ukings.ca/nova_news_3588_10367.html |title="N.S. Groundhog Dodges Hiberation in Heated House", Novanet News Now, Feb. 2, 2007 |access-date=2010-02-03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070509141430/http://novanewsnet.ukings.ca/nova_news_3588_10367.html |archive-date=2007-05-09 |url-status=dead }} By 2018, four ground hogs had served as "Shubenacadie Sam" since the practice began in Nova Scotia, as groundhogs usually live 10-15 years in captivity.[https://www.thecoast.ca/halifax/shubenacadie-sham/Content?oid=12382168 Jacon Boon, "Shubenacadie sham!", The Coast, February 1, 2018] In 2021, a 7-year-old female groundhog, "Samantha", assumed the prediction duties.[https://www.thechronicleherald.ca/news/provincial/no-shadow-of-a-doubt-shubenacadie-sam-pokes-head-into-storm-predicts-early-spring-547851/ Ian Fairclough, "No shadow of a doubt: Shubenacadie Sam pokes head into storm, predicts early spring" Chronicle Herald, February 2, 2021] Park employees have served as the caretaker for Shubenacadie Sam and the park's groundhogs for over 20 years. They provide breakfast for the groundhog, usually yogurt and melon. Staff also read to the groundhog who has been designated an advocate for Family Literacy Day. Shubenacadie Sam inspired a children's book in 2022.[https://miramichireader.ca/2022/12/groundhog-night-shubenacadie-sams-shadow-by-doretta-groenendyk/ Carrie Stanton, "Review: Groundhog Night: Shubenacadie Sam’s Shadow by Doretta Groenendyk", Miramichi Reader, December 15, 2022] Pages of the book are displayed around the park offering visitors a groundhog tour of the park. The ceremony was held virtually by web streaming during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021 and 2022 but live gatherings resumed in 2023.[https://atlantic.ctvnews.ca/shubenacadie-sam-sees-shadow-predicts-six-more-weeks-of-winter-1.6256563 Natalie Lombard, "Shubenacadie Sam sees shadow, predicts six more weeks of winter", CTV News Atlantic, Feb. 2, 2023]
Biting incident
In 2018, Sam bit the finger of CBC reporter Brett Ruskin when the reporter grabbed the groundhog to stop Sam from climbing out of the groundhog enclosure.[http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/windsor/groundhog-day-2018-1.4516220 "Groundhog Day 2018: Mixed signals and a near escape", CBC News, February 2, 2018]
Predictions
Shubenacadie Sam's prediction, like all weather-predicting groundhogs, bears little relation to seasonal weather trends as it is based on random location conditions, according to Meteorologist Cindy Day. Based on a 2018 review of Shubenacadie Sam predictions by Day, the Nova Scotia groundhog had an accuracy rate of about 45%, according to Day, compared to 39% for Punxsutawney Phil and 25% for Wiarton Willie.[http://thechronicleherald.ca/novascotia/1541732-shubenacadie-sam-unlikely-to-see-his-shadow Tom Ayers, "Shubenacadie Sam unlikely to see his shadow", Chronicle Herald, January 31, 2018a] A 2021 study by Lakehead University climatologists of 33 predicting groundhogs, including of 20 years of Shubenacadie Sam predictions, found that Shubenacadie Sam was correct 65% of the time. This was better than 52% accuracy for Punxsutawney Phil and 54% for Wiarton Willie, but still below 75% score regarded as reliable by the study, a reliability rate achieved by only two groundhogs, one in Oil Springs, Ontario and one in Essex, Connecticut. Overall, the study concluded that groundhog day predictions were random with an average success rate of only 50-50.[https://www.jstor.org/stable/27089920?read-now=1&seq=5#page_scan_tab_contents "Broadscale Assessment of Groundhog (Marmota monax) Predictions of Spring Onset No Better than Chance", Alexander J. Ross, Ryan C. Grow, Lauren D. Hayhurst, Haley A. MacLeod, Graydon I. McKee, Kyle W. Stratton, Marissa E. Wegher, Michael D. Rennie, Weather, Climate, and Society, Vol. 13, No. 3 (July 2021), p. 507, Accessed by JSTOR Feb. 2, 2025]
Background
While Shubenacadie offers the earliest prediction every year, it is one of many towns throughout North America known for their winter-predicting groundhogs. The most famous is Punxsutawney Phil of Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, United States. The most famous Canadian groundhog is Wiarton Willie in Ontario, Canada. Sam shares the Nova Scotia prediction every year with "Two Rivers Tunnel" in Cape Breton at the Two Rivers Wildlife Park in Mira River, Nova Scotia, although "Two Rivers Tunnel" is awakened for its prediction just after 11 am instead of 8 am.[https://www.saltwire.com/atlantic-canada/news/six-more-weeks-of-winter-cape-bretons-two-rivers-tunnel-makes-annual-groundhog-day-prediction-100688061/ "Six more weeks of winter: Cape Breton's Two Rivers Tunnel makes annual Groundhog Day prediction" Saltwite News, Feb. 2, 2022] Promoters of a lobster festival in Barrington Passage, Nova Scotia created a "Lucy the Lobster" ritual in 2018 with a lobster that crawled from the water to a lobster trap on Groundhog Day.[https://www.thevanguard.ca/living/lucy-the-lobster-does-not-see-her-shadow-on-groundhog-day-morning-in-a-new-south-shore-ns-twist-on-an-old-tradition-182804/ Tina Comeau, "Lucy the Lobster does not see her shadow on Groundhog Day morning in a new South Shore N.S. twist on an old tradition", Yarmouth County Vanguard, February 2, 2018]
Notes
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External links
- [http://wildlifepark.novascotia.ca/shubie-sam.asp Shubenacadie Sam "Groundhog", Shubenacadie Provincial Wildlife Park website]
{{Groundhog Day}}
Category:Individual groundhogs
Category:Hants County, Nova Scotia