It’s a jungle out there: Animals making World Cup predictions

Looking to the animal kingdom to refine your World Cup predictions? Be careful, it’s a jungle out there.

Camels, kangaroos, turtles and elephants have all taken their places alongside the human bookies predicting the outcomes of the various matches in the month-long soccer tournament.

None of the fortune-telling fauna can yet compare with Paul the Octopus, the eight-legged pundit who successfully called 12 out of 14 games over his career as a soothsayer.

Still, several animals have tried to make their mark and racked up a few successful calls in the process Shaheen the Emirati Camel successfully predicted at least six matches so far by bumping his head against the sign of the team expected to carry the day.

Brazilian turtle Cabecao, whose name translates to Big Head, has repeatedly shown his appetite for hometown victories by eating the fish under the flag of the team that gets his blessing. Most of the time, he’s successfully bet in favour of Brazil.

But Cabecao is not the only one demonstrating some bias in favour of his home country’s team. Flopsy the Kangaroo has been known to pick Australia when confronted with food dishes behind rival flags.

Some of the animal prognosticators have combined their forecasting talents with athletic skill.

Nelly the Elephant makes her calls by kicking a soccer ball through goal posts labelled with the flags of the teams she’s backing. Like Shaheen, the majority of her calls have been accurate so far.

Isidoro the Ocelot may limit his predictive powers to games involving the United States, but the dwarf leopard finds other ways to keep busy. When the denizen of Boston’s Franklin Park Zoo isn’t munching bamboo out of boxes labelled with team names, he’s fostering his social media presence through his active Twitter feed.