Psychic lion predicts Euro 2020 match results

NEWS AND VIEWS: This is a bit of promotional fun, as I would describe it. They have described Boy an eight-year-old lion living in a Thai zoo as albino but to the best of my knowledge he isn't a true albino. It just adds a little bit of mystery to the whole story. 

 Psychic lion predicts Euro 2020 match results. Credit: see image.

Zookeepers Khon Kaen zoo, keep the big cats at their zoo stimulated by hanging pieces of meat from a wire above them which are hard to get to. That's a good idea I guess because it challenges them slightly. Because of the Euro 2020 football currently running they decided to attach the flags of countries to each piece of meat. If the lion grabs a piece of meat labelled England, then England is going to win their next match which is exactly what happened!

Boy correctly predicted the outcome of the England vs Croatia match. He also predicted France to beat Germany which was correct, and Portugal to beat Hungary which was also correct. Those who want to know, Boy has not as yet predicted the winner of the tournament. In 2010 an octopus, Paul, predicted the winner of the World Cup that year as Spain, which as I recall was correct.

I almost forgot; Boy also predicted successfully the outcome of the Netherlands vs Ukraine match. Boy lives at the Khon Kaen zoo in the northeast of the country. The lion has been described as psychic by zookeepers! 

A statistician would be able to work out the chance of success by pure chance and they're probably quite high. Zookeepers are keen to tell people that they are not encouraging gambling! It is a neat idea, though, to promote the zoo. All they want to do is to "enrich animal's behaviours. The activity had no hidden purpose of encouraging people to gamble. This was purely for entertainment purposes only".  A slightly nervous statement. 

They are concerned that they'll be criticised in their country for encouraging gambling. This is significant as gambling, other than betting on horse races or the government-sponsored Thai lottery, is prohibited in Thailand. There you go. You can see the issue.

Can someone tell me why the Euro 2020 competition is being played in the middle of 2021! :) No idea. Just remembered: it was cancelled in 2020 because of Covid.