While Punxsutawney Phil predicts more winter, Audubon Zoo\u2019s capybaras have their own prediction.<\/p>\n
NEW ORLEANS \u2014 Punxsutawney Phil may be calling for six more weeks of winter, but Audubon Zoo\u2019s capybaras are offering a much sunnier forecast for New Orleans this Groundhog Day.<\/p>\n
In the zoo\u2019s annual New Orleans-style take on the tradition, three young capybara born in 2025 made the official weather call by choosing between two local favorites: gumbo for more winter weather or snoballs for an early spring.<\/p>\n
After some serious consideration, the trio ultimately went with snoballs, predicting spring is just around the corner.<\/p>\n
The capybara pups, named Tiana, Charlotte and Louis after characters from the New Orleans\u2013set Disney film \u201cThe Princess and the Frog,\u201d made their forecast unanimously. Zoo officials said the animals initially seemed tempted by gumbo, suggesting winter might linger, but changed course and embraced snoball season in the end.<\/p>\n
The three are following in the footsteps of their parents, who handled forecasting duties last year. Visitors can see the capybaras in the Jaguar Jungle River\u2019s Edge exhibit at Audubon Zoo, where they share space with their parents and are expected to soon be joined by five new baby siblings.<\/p>\n
So while Phil may be sticking with winter up north, Audubon Zoo\u2019s capybaras are keeping it local with a prediction that spring in New Orleans is on the way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While Punxsutawney Phil predicts more winter, Audubon Zoo\u2019s capybaras have their own prediction. NEW ORLEANS \u2014 Punxsutawney Phil…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":445787,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[192,79],"class_list":["post-445786","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445786","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=445786"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445786\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/445787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=445786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=445786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=445786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}