FOLLOWING in the tentacled footsteps of Paul the Octopus, a new "psychic" animal has been brought in to predict the winners of June's Euro 2012 soccer championships: Fred the Ferret.
What's more, Fred won't be alone. There will be a prognosticating hog named Khryak in Kiev and an elephant named Citta in Krakow, Poland, which co-hosts the tournament with Ukraine, Sky News reported.
Paul gained international fame in 2010 when he correctly predicted who would win every match Germany played in during that year's World Cup, as well as Spain's victory over the Netherlands in the final.
His technique was simple but tasty: Paul chose a mussel from one of two boxes, each decorated with a team's flag and whichever one he chose would win.
Then, sadly, the celebrated cephalopod went to that Great Aquarium in the Sky the following October, passing peacefully away in his sleep at the ripe octopus age of nearly three.
This year's organizers, apparently no strangers to Paul's popularity, will parade their psychic pets at designated "fan-zones."
That's where the assorted animals will follow Paul's technique and predict the winning team by choosing between bowls of food.
Kharkiv Fan Zone project manager Sergiy Kharkov told Sky his city had, "the most cute of them all, and the most communicative one, our local Kharkiv's one, born here, Ferret Fred."