SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, Feb. 6, 2024 (Gephardt Daily) — Call it a pride issue.
Vulcan, Hogle Zoo‘s African lion, last year failed to predict the 2023 Super Bowl winner, the Kansas City Chiefs, by instead choosing carnivor snacks offered near a logo for the Philadelphia Eagles. So that was a lose, when it comes to accurate Super Bowl predictions. But it was a win for Vulcan, who got the snacks of his choice.
Anyway, the Zoo is trying the prediction again for the 2024 Super Bowl, to be televised this Sunday. The Chiefs are back, this time playing the San Francisco 49ers.
On Thursday, the 12-year-old lion will be asked to choose the winner. Vulcan “will attempt to regain his winning record by choosing the big game winner,” a Hogle Zoo news release says.
Prior to his 2023 “loss,” Vulcan had correctly predicted the Super Bowl winner twice. He earned choice noshes all three times.
This year’s snack time is 10:30 a.m., on Thursday.
“Animal enrichment goalposts in Chiefs and 49ers’ colors will be placed on Lion Hill,” the Zoo says. “‘Referee’ animal care team members will measure the field and add the same food to each goal post for impartiality. In his fourth year, as the big game ‘fur’tune teller, Vulcan will predict the winner by selecting which side to eat first.
(“Fur’tune”? We’ still feeling guilty about using the cheesy “pride” reference in the first paragraph.)
In addition, Hogle Zoo hopes to connect with people who search Super Bowl but have poor typing skills, so it will put the spotlight on the small animal building, where it houses its “Superb Owls.”
(Oh, come on, now!)
Zoo visitors can go to the small animals building to learn more about Superb Owls, and how the benefit the ecosystem. For information about Hogle Zoo, including its location, hours and admission price, click here.
In related news, Raja, the Komodo dragon at Draper’s Loveland Living Planet Aquarium, has picked the San Francisco 49ers to win this year’s Super Bowl. Apparently, the 49ers keep more tasty smelling frozen mice snacks in their paper-mâché footballs.
