Fred la marmotte
Groundhog in Quebec, Canada, that celebrates Groundhog Day
Fred la marmotte (French: Fred the Marmot, lit. 'Fred the Groundhog') is a groundhog located in Val-d'Espoir near Percé, Quebec, whose behaviour is used to predict weather on Groundhog Day. Fred is the official groundhog of Quebec for Groundhog Day predictions. The name "Fred la marmotte" is passed to a succession of groundhogs, that are replaced as they retire or die.
Usage of Fred
According to the tradition of Groundhog Day, if the enlisted groundhog sees its shadow, then spring will be delayed; if it does not see its shadow, then spring will be early.
Fred was the only groundhog located on a World Heritage Site to be used for Groundhog Day weather prediction.
Succession of Freds
The original Fred, "Gros Fred" ("Big Fred"; also called "Fred Sénior"), was engaged from 2010 to 2017 and again in 2019; his son "Petit Fred" ("Little Fred") stood in for the 2018 event. The succeeding Fred, son of "Fred Sénior" ("Fred Senior", the original Fred) was found dead on February 2, 2023, coincidentally on Groundhog Day. The next year, a new Fred predicted an early spring.
Past predictions
References
External links
"Fred la marmotte officielle du Québec" (in French).
“Fred la marmotte” enters the record as groundhog in Quebec, Canada, that celebrates Groundhog Day. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Fred, marmotte and Groundhog can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Feb 26, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q65118931. Authority coordinates are 48.514, -64.400. None of the 2 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2010, 2017, 2019 and 2018.
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This entry incorporates text from “Fred la marmotte” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.