Is groundhog edible?

Yesterday an incredibly uncomfortable looking Punxsutawney Phil — “seer of seers, prognosticator of prognosticators” — came out of his stump and declared six more weeks of winter. The crowd booed and Phil was put back into safety.

Or was he? Would it be possible for for those guys in top hats to eat a plump Phil or one of his brothers?

Despite being nicknamed whistlepigs, groundhogs are firmly in the rodent family, on the same branch as the quite edible squirrel. More importantly, they are in a different branch than the bubonic-plague-carrying prairie dog. Groundhogs seem to carry no life-threatening diseases to humans.

Just because they’re safe to eat doesn’t mean they taste good but apparently they do.