The 40-hectare park includes animals, an interpretive nature centre operated by Ducks Unlimited Canada, hiking trails, a picnic area and playground.

The park began in the late 1940s as a refuge for orphaned white-tailed deer run by Eldon Pace.

Throughout the park's history countless orphaned and injured animals, birds and reptiles have been cared for and rehabilitated.

The groundhog's prediction happens at 8 am in a public ceremony that draws several hundred people to the park every year since 1987 and is now broadcast on Facebook and Twitter.

The Shubenacadie Wildlife Park is home to the Greenwing Legacy Centre, a collaboration project between Ducks Unlimited Canada and the Nova Scotia Department of Lands and Forestry.