By Tim Binnall
In what has become a weird tradition in the week leading up to the Super Bowl, animals across America have once again been enlisted to offer their predictions for who will win the big game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles. While wrangling all of the various forecasts featured on local TV stations throughout the country is a nearly impossible task, surveying some of the different prognostications suggests that Sunday's showdown may be particularly close as neither team appears to have a decided edge among the 'clairvoyant' creatures.
Throwing their support behind the Chiefs on Sunday are Nicholas the dolphin from Florida's Clearwater Marine Aquarium, Zola the giraffe from the Chahinkapa Zoo in North Dakota, the California Living Museum's resident black bear Cinnamon, and the penguins of Ripley's Aquarium of Myrtle Beach. Interestingly, two separate orangutans also predicted a win for Kansas City: the Topeka Zoo's appropriately named Rudy and fellow great ape Talukan from the Chahinkapa Zoo in North Dakota.
Meanwhile, suggesting that the Eagles will come out on top this weekend are Pabu the red panda from ZooMontana, the Orlando Science Center's resident skunk Memphis, tortoises Igor and Darwin of the Beardsley Zoo in Connecticut, and Vulcan the African lion at Utah's Hogle Zoo. Similar to the support for Kansas City shared among orangutans, Philadelphia swept the sea lion constituency with both Magoo of the OdySea Aquarium in Scottsdale and Crockett from the Wildlife World Zoo in Litchfield Park, Arizona backing the Eagles.