CLEVELAND — At the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, visitors can discover and explore the natural world inside and out.
Eighty-five different species call the museum's wildlife center home. Each creature is native to Ohio or migrates in and out.
All are unique in their own way — but none are quite like Murray.
"You can call him a groundhog. You can call him a woodchuck. You can call him a whistle pig. Just do not call him late for dinner," joked Jim Nemet, wildlife director for the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.
Yes, Murray is named for actor Bill Murray, who famously played the cynical weatherman Phil in "Groundhog Day" and Carl, the gopher-hunting greenskeeper in "Caddyshack."
But this scene-stealing rodent is perfectly content eating vegetables all day.
"He likes his space. He likes to chew on things. He likes interaction. He loves his food," Nemet said, describing the groundhog who is estimated to be about 2 1/2 years old.
Murray arrived at the Museum in June of 2023. A year earlier he became attached to a well-meaning family who rescued him from a dangerous situation. Their attempts to return him to the wild failed.
"They contacted the Lake Erie Nature and Science Center, which is a licensed state of Ohio rehabilitator which took him in. They quickly figured out he was imprinted on people. So the Wildlife Center there said, 'This animal can't be released.' They called us and said, 'Do you have any room for a groundhog?' And we said, 'Yes, we do!'"
After a 30-day quarantine, Murray became a part of the natural history museum's Perkins Wildlife Center, serving as an ambassador for his species by educating the public about a groundhog's role in the ecosystem.
"They important because they do a lot with soil, churning it up, moving it around, eating some of the vegetation down low," Nemet. said.
Murray also reminds us that creatures found in nature should stay there.
"He's a wild animal," Nemet said. "The state of Ohio frowns on people having wild animals as pets."
Murray is not alone. At the Perkins Wildlife Center you'll find a number of animals originally kept as pets, before their owners realized they could no longer care for them -- like Diego the bobcat and George the red fox.
Like Murray, they serve as ambassadors too.
"It just helps us to make connections with our guests about the animals that might be in our own backyard," Nemet said. "That, you know, if you teach them to respect the environment by one animal, that's cool. Then hopefully they translate it to all the animals."
For his part, Murray is basking in the spotlight — posing for Cleveland photographer Greg Murray and assuming the mantle of Buckeye Chuck, one day a year, for a little "shadow searching."
Last year served as Murray's debut at the Marion event.
"We loaded him up four o'clock in the morning, hopped into his carrier, came out, stepped onto the platform, did not see his shadow, prognosticated an early spring, we got an early spring. So he's one for one," Nemet said.
A big day for Northeast Ohio's favorite groundhog who is happy hibernating home in Cleveland the remaining 364 days of the year.
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