Practically everyone in the country will be watching the Super Bowl this Sunday. It’s the biggest sporting event of the year, and everyone is wondering who will reign victorious between the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers.
Some people even have money riding on the big game, from Vegas high rollers to people just filling out their office pools. So it’s no surprise that people go to some pretty odd lengths to predict the winner.
One of the strangest ways: just letting the animals do it. Creatures ranging from giraffes to dolphins have been brought in to choose between two teams, using the very scientific method of picking one ball or the other.
They’re back at it this year, making their picks for Sunday’s game.
Among the animal prognosticators: Fiona, the beloved 3-year-old hippo of the Cincinnati Zoo.
It’s the third time she’s predicted the Super Bowl. Zoo handlers present her with two enrichment items with the teams’ logos on them, the one she goes towards is her “pick.”
But this year, Fiona gave some… mixed signals about her choice.
It all started pretty straightforward: she went towards the Chiefs logo, indicating a big win for Kansas City, right?
But then, she puked on it:
As the zoo noted, this is a bit hard to interpret. Did she choose Kansas City? Or did she choose to vomit on Kansas City, indicating a disgust and a preference for the 49ers? Was she just predicting how we’ll all look after too many beers at the Super Bowl party?
We’ll never know for sure, but you probably shouldn’t place your bet based on this. For the record Fiona has a mixed track record on her picks: she did correctly choose the Eagles over the favorited Patriots in 2018, but incorrectly picked the Rams over the Patriots last year.
But luckily, the zoo also enlisted more animals to make their picks, and they were much more straightforward, and kept down their lunch.
A lion chose the Chiefs, while a cheetah chose the 49ers:
And with Fiona’s ambiguous decision, we’re left with a tie between the three animals. Maybe the game will just be extraordinarily close this year.
Or maybe these animals are just not that into football, and are just waiting for March Madness to start.
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