If Punxsutawney Phil lived in Colorado instead of Pennsylvania, the groundhog weather predictor might need to forecast an early spring every year.
Yellow-bellied marmots (also known as groundhogs or woodchucks) are now emerging from their 8-to-9-month hibernations 38 days earlier than they did 23 years ago, according to a long-term study by scientists working at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory in Crested Butte, Colo.