Super Bowl LVIII: Tiger catfish at Iowa zoo predicts Chiefs will win
Catfishing: A tiger shovelnose catfish chose the Kansas City Chiefs to win Super Bowl LVIII. (Blank Park Zoo)
By Bob D'Angelo, Cox Media Group National Content Desk
DES MOINES, Iowa — There have been plenty of predictions made for Super Bowl LVIII, but an Iowa zoo whose animals have a remarkable record for accuracy weighed in on Wednesday.
Officials at the Blank Park Zoo in Des Moines said that its tiger shovelnose catfish chose the Kansas City Chiefs to win Sunday’s big game.
“With the use of some handy enrichment wiffle balls filled with capelin, the approximately 15-pound catfish took their time and mulled over the decision for several minutes before landing on ... the Kansas City Chiefs,” the zoo wrote in a Facebook post.
Blank Park Zoo animals have picked the winner in 10 of the last 13 years, including last year’s game.
“We’ve done this for over a decade,” Ryan Bickel, the zoo’s chief marketing officer, told the Des Moines Register. “It’s a little bit of a surprise even, that zoo animals can have this prognostic ability.”
Last year, the zoo’s then 5-month-old giraffe, Bakari, correctly chose Kansas City, according to the newspaper.
It took the catfish nearly 15 minutes to make its pick, zoo officials said. But the fish eventually swam to some food next to the Chiefs’ logo.
Bickel told WHO-TV that the catfish was “very thoughtful” with his choice.
“Obviously, it was weighing the ramifications of going against hometown players Brock Purdy and George Kittle,” Bickel told the television station.
Purdy and Kittle, who play for the 49ers, played college football in Iowa. Purdy, the team’s quarterback, played at Iowa State, while Kittle played for the rival University of Iowa, according to Pro-Football-Reference.com.
While the zoo is proud of its animals’ prognosticating skills, officials are urging caution.
“Despite this track record, we urge caution in using the fish’s pick as a basis for wagering,” the zoo wrote on Facebook.