NORTH WHITEHALL TWP., Pa. — Two of Lehigh Valley Zoo’s most expert sports forecasters, river otters Piper and Luani, predicted Sunday that the Kansas City Chiefs will win Super Bowl LIX.
Zoo employees placed two paper-mache footballs stuffed with sardines and smelt in the otters’ round enclosure — one adorned with the Philadelphia Eagles’ logo, the other bearing the Chiefs’.
Then, they released the otters.
After a few moments sniffing around, both mustelids ambled over to the Chiefs’ football-shaped fish piñata.
Luani, a 12-year-old male, sunk his teeth into the “ball” first, decisively picking Kansas City.
Fortunately for Eagles fans, the zoo’s otters don't seem to know very much about football.
“The fact that they picked Kansas City today — that Luani was the first to get into a football and it was the Chiefs’ football — is probably good for Eagles fans.”Matt Provence, Lehigh Valley Zoo chief operating officer
Over the past 13 Super Bowls, they have only correctly picked the winner four times. Last year, organizers declared a tie after they broke open both balls simultaneously.
That might bode well for the Birds.
“The fact that they picked Kansas City today — that Luani was the first to get into a football and it was the Chiefs’ football — is probably good for Eagles fans,” said Matt Provence, the zoo’s chief operating officer.
“That probably means the Eagles have a good chance to win the game tonight.”
Despite the otters’ less-than-convincing record, zoo officials ask their opinion every year as a way to bring crowds to the zoo in mid-winter, when attendance typically dips.
“Obviously, we're a seasonal business,” Provence said. “Things like this that we do during the colder months obviously help us.”
The spectacle also raises interest in and educates about Piper and Luani, a breeding pair of North American river otters part of a “species survival plan” to maintain a healthy, genetically diverse population.
The event typically draws hundreds of spectators, Provence said. Because of icy roads and cold temperatures Sunday, only a few dozen attendees came to witness the otters’ prediction this year.
Winter weather also meant the Otter Bowl, originally scheduled for Saturday, took place Sunday morning instead.
