Paul the Octopus

Paul

Paul, next to a football boot with the German flag colours, in his tank
Other name(s)	Paul Oktopus, Die Krake Paul
Species	Octopus vulgaris
Sex	Male
Hatched	26 January 2008 Weymouth, England
Died	26 October 2010 (aged 2) Oberhausen, Germany
Known for	Successfully predicting results of football matches
Owner	Sea Life Centres
Named after	Der Tintenfisch Paul Oktopus – poem by Boy Lornsen

Paul the Octopus (26 January 2008^[1] – 26 October 2010) was a common octopus who predicted the results of international association football matches. Accurate predictions in the 2010 World Cup brought him worldwide attention as an animal oracle.

During divinations, Paul's keepers would present him with two food-containing boxes decorated with the flags of the teams in an upcoming match. Whichever box Paul ate from first was considered his prediction for which team would win the match.

His keepers at the Sea Life Centre in Oberhausen, Germany, mainly tasked him with predicting the outcomes of international matches in which the German team was playing. Paul correctly chose the winning team in four of Germany's six Euro 2008 matches, and all seven of their matches in the 2010 World Cup—including Germany's third place play-off win over Uruguay on 10 July. He also correctly chose Spain as the winner of the 2010 FIFA World Cup final.^[2] In all, Paul amassed an overall record of 12 correct predictions out of 14: a success rate of approximately 85.7%.