Climate Could Kill Punxsutawney Phil Before He Gets His Next Chance To Predict It

Climate change is causing droughts and other issues that limit food availability for the wide variety of hibernating animals. Without enough food to store as fat before entering dormancy, hibernators can't survive the winter.

Research has shown that changing environmental signals are already altering animal behavior. For example, some bears are emerging from dormancy earlier, and some endangered species of ground squirrel are hibernating even longer. Meanwhile, some chipmunks aren't even hibernating at all anymore.

One of these years, Punxsutawney Phil himself might not be able to store enough food to make it through the winter.

Reactions: How is Climate Change Affecting Hibernation?, January 22, 2022.

About Alexandra Bowman

Alexandra Bowman is World War Zero's cartoonist in residence. She is a political cartoonist and satirist, creating work with The Lincoln Project and environmental newsletter Our Daily Planet. Bowman's illustrations have been published by BBC News, BBC Books, Puffin Books, the Georgetown University Institute of Politics and Public Service, the National Wildlife Federation, and Penguin Random House UK. As a rising senior at Georgetown University, she is double majoring in English and Art and will be graduating early with a Master's in English in May 2023. Bowman also founded The Hilltop Show, a political comedy webseries run by over 50 undergraduate and graduate student members from around the world, and serves as its host and Lead Satirical Writer.