Paul the Octopus, who correctly predicted all of Germany's results in South Africa, has picked Spain to win the World Cup 2010 final.
Paul, who lives in an aquarium in Oberhausen in western Germany, made the prediction on Friday by choosing a mussel from a glass box with the Spanish flag ignoring the other one with the Dutch flag.
The creature also predicted that Germany will beat Uruguay to win third place in the championship.
The octopus has had a 100% record by predicting Germany's victory in South Africa over Argentina, England, Australia and Ghana and the country's loss to Spain and Serbia.
The Sea Life aquarium keepers said Paul is an expert on Germany and it is difficult to speak on the accuracy of his predictions about the teams of other countries at the championship.
After the World Cup "prophet" predicted that Germany would be ousted by Spain at the semi-finals, German fans threatened to kill the creature and began posting delicious recipes of how to cook an octopus on the Internet.
Meanwhile, Spanish politicians rushed to protect Paul from the revenge. "I am concerned for the octopus ... I am thinking of sending him a protective team," Spanish Prime Minister Jose Zapatero told Radio Cadena Ser.
A Russian doctor of biological sciences, Vyacheslav Bisikov, said an octopus is a clever creature and although there is no evidence octopi have color vision they can be attracted by contrasting stripes on a flag.
The scientist also said octopus Paul can be "easily trained" to choose the correct box with the flag by using its ability to smell substances in the water.
BERLIN, July 9 (RIA Novosti)
