World-renowned groundhog, Punxsutawney Phil, surprises everyone by becoming a dad

The baby woodchucks came as a total surprise, the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club said.

"We have babies!!" the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club excitedly announced on Facebook on Wednesday.

Phil and his soulmate Phyllis are the proud new parents of two baby groundhogs born over the weekend.

The world-renowned groundhog has predicted either the early arrival of spring or a continued winter season since the late 1800s. In 1887, a local newspaper editor declared Phil, whose full title is “Punxsutawney Phil, Seer of Seers, Sage of Sages, Prognosticator of Prognosticators and Weather Prophet Extraordinary,” to be the United States’ only true weather-forecasting groundhog.

The arrival of two babies came as quite a surprise to the club.

“We did not think that this would happen in captivity because it never has,” Thomas Dunkel, president of the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club Inner Circle, said. “But apparently, we were wrong.”

According to Punxsutawney Phil lore, this is the first time in 138 years that the groundhogs have procreated. Yes, the club maintains that Phil is 138 years old. While the average groundhog lives four to six years and up to 14 in captivity, the groundhog club insists says Phil receives a special elixir to extend his life.

Dunkel told the Philadelphia Inquirer a groundhog club member discovered the babies when he visited Phil and Phyllis’ climate-controlled burrow to feed them and the public can check them out.

"The babies are currently in with mom and dad at the zoo that is located at the Punxsutawney Memorial Library and can be viewed thru the viewing window!"