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See which Super Bowl team a lion at Hogle Zoo — and an armadillo at Living Planet — picked to win

Utah’s Hogle Zoo hosted “Vulcan’s Vote” on Thursday, where one of their African Lions chose his pick for Super Bowl LVI.

(Chris Samuels | The Salt Lake Tribune) Vulcan, an African lion, picks his predicted Super Bowl winner at the Hogle Zoo, Thursday, Feb. 10, 2022.

(Chris Samuels | The Salt Lake Tribune) Vulcan, an African lion, picks his predicted Super Bowl winner at the Hogle Zoo, Thursday, Feb. 10, 2022.

Super Bowl Sunday is an American tradition — and so are animal predictions of the big game’s outcome.

Vulcan, an African Lion at Utah’s Hogle Zoo, voted against his big-cat cousins Thursday, when he rushed to a Rams-labeled goal post to predict the winner of Super Bowl LVI.

He wasn’t sheepish as he sealed in his choice, chowing down on a plate of meat under the Rams sign.

(Chris Samuels | The Salt Lake Tribune) Vulcan, an African lion, picks the Los Angeles Rams to win the Super Bowl at the Hogle Zoo, Thursday, Feb. 10, 2022.

Vulcan’s pick aligned with a prediction from Loveland Living Planet Aquarium, where a tiny armadillo named Dahlia crossed a miniature field to select the Rams as her victor, FOX 13 reported.

Vulcan is undefeated in his last two picks for the game’s winners, according to a news release from the zoo. The zoo’s animals have correctly predicted 10 out of the last 14 Super Bowl winners. Two of them — Zuri, an African Elephant; and Nikolai, an Amur Tiger — also are undefeated in their picks.

This year, the zoo said its Amur Tigers are rooting for the Bengals, while its Turkmenian Markhors — a Himalayan species of mountain goat — are siding with the Rams.

Utahns will have to wait and see whether the Rams become tiger bait this Sunday.

(Chris Samuels | The Salt Lake Tribune) Vulcan, an African lion, picks the Los Angeles Rams to win the Super Bowl at the Hogle Zoo, Thursday, Feb. 10, 2022.


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