MILWAUKEE COUNTY

Awwww! Milwaukee zoo announces arrival of adorable baby groundhog. And he loves broccoli.

Meg Jones
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Milwaukee County Zoo patrons missed having a groundhog on Feb. 2 this year — instead a stand-in had to do the Groundhog Day honors.

But it just wasn't the same.

Fortunately, the Milwaukee zoo recently got a new groundhog and his name is Gordy. He weighs 3 1/2 pounds and was born April 8 in Indiana.

And judging by the super-cute video the zoo posted Sunday on Facebook, Gordy is a fan of broccoli.

Gordy is taking over as the zoo's new groundhog.

Gordy is being taken care of behind the scenes at the zoo. Officials will let everyone know when the groundhog pup is ready to meet groundhog fans.

When the zoo's most recent groundhog, Wynter, died in 2017, polar bear Snow Lilly performed the duties normally handled by a prognosticating rodent this past February. Zoo staff learned that the tradition of an animal predicting how long winter would continue originated in Europe with a badger or bear often providing the forecast.

Snow Lilly, the Milwaukee County Zoo's polar bear, saw her shadow on Friday morning, Groundhog Day. According to legend, that means six more weeks of winter. The zoo turned to the polar bear this year after its groundhog, Wynter, died last year.

Snow Lilly saw her shadow, meaning six more weeks of winter.  Winter felt like it lasted a lot longer, so maybe Snow Lilly was having an off day, or more likely she made a rookie mistake.

When Gordy is not excitedly eating broccoli, he loves to play with his favorite toy, a plush dog bone he carries around and uses to wrestle with zookeepers.