Mayor de Blasio’s aides scratched and clawed to keep him from being labeled a groundhog killer after The Post revealed that one of the critters had secretly died after Hizzoner accidentally dropped it, according to newly released e-mails.

The e-mails show that the mayor’s then-press secretary, Phil Walzak tussled with reporters over whether de Blasio was responsible for the death of the Staten Island Zoo’s weather-predicting groundhog in 2014.

Although the groundhog fell out of the mayor’s hands, Walzak insisted the animal was not “dropped.”

“Oh please how can a reasonable, rational viewer watch that and ignore the squirming and writhing of the animal as it is placed into the mayor’s hands?” Walzak wrote in one feisty exchange with New York Times editorial-board member Lawrence Downes.

“The only thing I care abt is people saying mayor killed groundhog . . . which is not true!” Walzak wrote to another media member.

The Post reported in September 2014 that Staten Island Chuck had been replaced earlier that year. At the February 2014 ceremony, the imposter groundhog — Charlotte — was dropped by the mayor and secretly died a week later.

The e-mail exchanges between City Hall and reporters were posted online Monday by the Web site MuckRock.