Vancouver Island Violet predicts six more weeks of winter
Published 12:01 am Monday, February 2, 2026
Vancouver Island Violet has made her prediction that there will be six more weeks of winter after waking to her shadow.
On Monday, Feb. 2, the endangered marmot saw her shadow after being awoken by staff at the Tony Barrett Mount Washington Marmot Recovery Centre for her regular health-check.
Adam Taylor, Marmot Recovery Foundation executive director, said he wasn’t too surprised, given she makes her annual prediction in a sub-alpine to alpine ecosystem in early February and has always guessed six more weeks of winter since she started the meteorologist role about four years ago.
“I feel like six more weeks of winter is a pretty safe prediction for this part of the world,” he said.
“Her predictions have always been six more weeks of winter, but they have also always been right, so as far as we can tell we’re batting 100 per cent right now.”
While the prediction is usually made by a groundhog in other parts of the country, Taylor said both species are members of the same genus, and Violet has a “fair amount” of what Taylor called “groundhoggy-ness.”
“If you put aside the scientific literature for just a moment, basically every marmot has been called a groundhog at some point. Arguably [while] it’s a mistake to call a Vancouver Island marmot a groundhog, it has definitely happened – a lot.”
Vancouver Island Violet isn’t the first marmot to take on the meteorologist role at the foundation, with a wild marmot initially pegged for the position in the past. Unfortunately, this proved ineffective since wild marmots seldom come out of hibernation this early, Taylor said, leading to staff being unable to get a prediction from below several metres of dirt, rock and soil.
This led to the pivot in 2022 to the current Violet, who is a part of the conservation breeding program at the recovery centre. As part of the care, the marmots are regularly woken up and checked over for their health, which meant staff just had to schedule Violet’s to occur on Groundhog Day each year.
“About once a month we try to weigh every marmot. This is important because it tells us a lot about the health of the marmot and it can be a really early indicator … that either it or one of the other marmots that is hibernating with it is unwell in some way.”
With this Violet around five years old, Taylor said they estimate her to be able to keep predicting the winter for the next three to five years.
More information on the local Vancouver Island marmot population and conservation efforts can be found on the foundation’s website at https://marmots.org.