Three-month-old octopus Pavlik from a zoo in the Ukrainian city of Alushta is being trained to succeed the late and world famous Paul the psychic octopus, the Ukrainian segodnya.ua news website said.
Paul the psychic octopus became a pop culture sensation by correctly predicting the results of eight World Cup matches last summer. He died in October 2010 at the age of two in the Oberhausen Sea Life Center where he lived.
The name for the small Ukrainian octopus was not chosen at random. Pavlik is the diminutive of Pavel, the Slavic version of the name Paul. Pavlik came to Alushta from Singapore and has already begun “prediction training”. Pavlik is currently learning to open boxes containing mussels, aquarium keeper Vitaly Stukanov said.
Pavlik will get his first test on April 4 when Ukrainian side Shakhtar Donetsk take on Barcelona in the Champions League. If Pavlik’s predictions prove true, he will predict the results of Euro 2012, to be held in Poland and Ukraine.
MOSCOW, March 24 (RIA Novosti)