Meet the man who takes care of Punxsutawney Phil

AccuWeather

The famous groundhog is taken care of all year by A.J. Dereume, a member of the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club Inner Circle who says he's just lucky to get to hang out with the prognosticating marmot.

Transcript

00:00 Ladies and gentlemen, Punxsutawney Phil!

00:04 My name's AJ Darum and I am the rainmaker and Phil's handler for the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club Inner Circle.

00:10 Phil does live here in his burrow 364 days a year, sleep and eat is basically his two favorite pastimes, mostly sleeping.

00:18 Well he's an herbivore so vegetables, fruit, kale is probably the main staple of his diet, but you know his favorite food is bananas.

00:26 Well, you know I do maybe up the sugar content a little bit just to give him a little bit of extra energy.

00:32 It's just when he comes out to greet the crowd we want to make sure that he's got energy and he's ready to, you know,

00:38 keep his eye on that shadow and not just fall asleep before it happens because it is hibernation season.

00:43 You know he is a ham for the camera. He's always, you know, people always say like, "How do you get Phil?"

00:48 You know, to just be so happy to greet the crowd and I don't do anything, I just hold him up.

00:53 He does everything else. I'm just lucky enough to hang out with him.

00:56 (upbeat music)

00:58 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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