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The Furry Fortune Tellers of the World Cup

Achilles the cat, from St. Petersburg, is turning out to be the official oracle of World Cup 2018. He has not made any mistakes in his predictions yet. Dylan Martinez / Reuters
Khan is a White Bengal tiger from Royev Ruchey Zoo in Krasnoyarsk who predicted the Russian win against Saudi Arabia correctly. Ilya Naymushin / Reuters
Lioness Valentina lives at the zoo in Medellin, Colombia. She was, sadly, mistaken in an attempt to predict the results of the match between Colombia and Japan. Fredy Builes / Reuters
A meerkat at the Royev Ruchey Zoo in Krasnoyarsk was also on the ball in its prediction of the result between Russia and Saudi Arabia. Ilya Naymushin / Reuters
Cleopatra the tapir from Nizhniy Novgorod, Russia, predicted the Swedish win over South Korea. Limpopo Zoo
Zabiyaka the goat has become a huge star in Moscow. She even has her own social media profile on the Russian network “VKontakte”. She was correct in her prediction of the match between Mexico and Germany. Koza Zabiyaka / VKontakte
Harry, an oracle otter who resides in Sochi, sniffs a ball labelled with the FIFA World Cup teams signs at Sochi’s zoo. Evgeny Reutov / Reuters
Nafanya the racoon missed the mark in her prediction about the Russia versus Egypt game. Irkutskiy Zoo

There are a few non-human stars of the World Cup: the fortune-telling animals that predict, some successfully, the outcome of matches. Whether they’re hopping on two legs or swimming with eight tentacles, they are here to play some serious football.

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