Forget it Portugal - the animal prophets clearly favour Germany

Inspired by Paul's fame, the animal world in Germany has come forth four years later to produce an entire menagerie of prophets for Brazil. Following are just a few of them, and how they see the Germany-Portugal match:

 - Momario the Turtle: On a stretch of beach called Brazil on the Baltic Sea coast of northern Germany, Momario is not exactly the speediest, but does have stamina. Given the choice of green plants to eat, one with a German flag and the other with a Portuguese flag stuck in them, Momario in super slow-motion was shown on the German TV network ARD to prefer the German-flagged greens.

 - Ronald the Penguin: At the Spreewelten marine park in Luebbenau, the penguins were given an array of balls decorated in the colours of Germany and Portugal to play with on the edge of their pool. Ronald bumped a Germany ball into a Portugal one, and the Portuguese ball then plopped into the water - 1-0 for Germany. The other penguins ignored the balls altogether, so Ronald was declared the winner.

 - Nelly the Elephant: In the past, Nelly - a resident of the Serengeti Park in the Lueneburg Heath in northern Germany - had a superb sense of picking the loser. Nine times out of ten, the goal that she pushed a ball into was that of the losing team. Germany can breathe a sigh of relief. While she did predict a loss against Portugal, Nelly has the Germans as the winners in their matches against Ghana and the USA.

 - The Piglets Team: The Bayern 3 radio station in Bavaria staged a five-against-five match on Monday - five Team Germany piglets against five Team Portugal piglets running around in a fenced-in field, trying to bump a ball into a goal. The German team captain, of course, was the swine "Steiger" - no relation to German midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger - and in the final seconds, the German piglets won by scoring the first goal.

 - Flitz and Taka, the Armadillos: In the Chemnitz zoo, Flitz was given a choice of food in the national colours of Germany and Portugal. Flitz ignored the German-coloured food and instead nibbled on Portugal. 1-0 for the Portuguese. But, at the Erfurt zoo, two bowls of food - cooked chicken skin - were put out, each with a goalpost painted in the national colours over them. Taka chose the dish from the German goalpost.    - Regina the Octopus: A Berlin-based octopus and named after former world champion boxer Regina Halmich, chose her food placed beneath the German flag. It remains to be seen whether her powers of prediction can match those of the late Paul the Octopus, who four years ago correctly forecast all of Germany's matches plus the outcome of the final between Spain and Netherlands.