Groundhog emerges from males' shadows

Four-year-old Ms. G has overseen Groundhog Day festivities for the Massachusetts Audubon Society's Drumlin Farm. More than 220 people have signed a petition supporting a state appointment for her. (Yoon S. Byun/Globe Staff )

For years, the world of early spring harbingers has been an old boys' network dominated by Punxsutawney Phils and Buckeye Chucks. Massachusetts legislators want that to change.

Ms. G (that's short for Groundhog), a 4-year-old woodchuck from the Massachusetts Audubon Society's Drumlin Farm, has been nominated to be the state's first official groundhog. If approved by the Legislature this year, she would be the first female groundhog in the country to hold such a title.

"What does Punxsutawney Phil know about Massachusetts?" Christy Foote-Smith, sanctuary director at Drumlin Farm, said of the Pennsylvania rodent. "We need our own groundhog."

While some say the political climate seems right for a female woodchuck, there is a natural reason that the shadow-seeing had traditionally been left up to the males. Male woodchucks are the early risers of winter, driven out of hibernation by their desire to mate. Females, on the other hand, hang around their dens and wait for gentlemen callers.

But times may have changed.

"Don't you think the nation is ready for an official female groundhog?" said Jan Kruse, an Audubon spokeswoman.

Found by a family when she was a pup, apparently abandoned, Ms. G oversees Groundhog Day festivities at Drumlin Farm, where a grass-roots campaign is underway for statewide recognition; more than 220 people have signed a petition on the website massaudubon.org supporting her appointment.

"She's currently running unopposed," Kruse said. "But who knows, there may be a strong write-in candidate."

TANIA DELUZURIAGA