Paul the Octopus

He has eight legs but has never kicked a ball. That, however, hasn’t stopped Paul the octopus from becoming the world’s finest football forecaster.

Paul the Octopus or Paul Oktopus (hatched 2008) is a common octopus, which lives in a commercial entertainment aquarium in Germany. The animal was used as an oracle in an attempt to predict the results of major German international football matches.

With 100% correct predictions – six out of six – on the outcome of games in the 2010 World Cup, the four-year-old tentacled tipster is every bookmaker’s envy too.

Everybody wants to know whom he will select as world champion. He is a global talking point. Google him and you get about 2,630,000 results.

How he did it: The octopus was allowed to choose between two boxes with food within, each one marked with the flag of a national team. The boxes are arranged left and right as per the FIFA arrangement of the flags of both teams.Paul is reported to have correctly chosen the box with the flag of the winning team in five of Germany’s six UEFA Euro 2008 matches and in each of Germany’s six matches in the 2010 FIFA World Cup

Paul the octopus is currently among the top 10 trends on Twitter. And he is big enough to get death threats. Embittered by Argentina’s loss to Germany – an outcome predicted by Paul – Argentine chef Nicolas Bedorrou wants to beat him to death “In order to keep the meat tender and then put it in boiling water.” Once a darling in Deutschland, most Germans now envision him fried in garlic butter after he predicted that the team would lose to Spain. Crowds are singing anti-octopus songs.

The internet too is overflowing with comments, especially now that Paul is to predict the final result – the first time he’ll prophesy about a match not featuring Germany.

Paul’s History: Paul was hatched from an egg at the Sea Life Centre in Weymouth, Dorset, England. This octopus now lives in a tank in Sea Life Oberhausen, a commercial attraction in the town of Oberhausen, Germany. Sea Life Oberhausen is one of a chain of sealife-themed attractions that is owned by Merlin Entertainments, a company that also owns amusement parks and midway attractions.

The name of the octopus was taken from the title of a poem by the German children’s writer Boy Lornsen: Der Tintenfisch Paul Oktopus.