World Cup Final: Sussex’s ‘mystic’ zoo animals give their prediction ahead of England’s match against Spain

The meerkats at Drusillas Park near Alfriston in East Sussex have predicted Lionesses’ last three results correctly against Nigeria, Colombia and Australia.

The animals also boast a perfect prediction record from England’s famous Euros 2022 run, and this time around they are again backing the Lionesses to win the competition.

A spokesperson from the zoo said: “The special method involves two buckets of worms, each with a team's flag on. The buckets are placed down before the meerkats are released and left to choose which bucket they would prefer to eat from. The bucket surrounded by the most meerkats is declared the predicted winner.

“For their final prediction of the tournament the meerkats kept things exciting and it looked as though it could have gone either way at one point, with little meerkat bottoms sticking out of both buckets for a while. But sure enough, after some scrambling around, the mob settled in England’s bucket and Spain’s bucket was left deserted.”

Although it might seem a strange activity for meerkats, the activity forms part of the zoo’s daily enrichment programme, which makes sure all the animals enjoy a diverse diet in imaginative and unusual ways. The activities encourage them to think and work for their food, like they would in the wild.”

Head keeper Gemma Romanis said: “Whether you are superstitious or not, the meerkats have a pretty impressive track record with their predictions so I’m choosing to believe in them.”

She added: “They actually weren’t as certain today, and there was a moment where there were equal meerkats in both buckets, but they had a team huddle and seemed to all land on England as the winner after all. Even after the food was all gone it was a struggle to coax them back out of the bucket, so we think that means they are very sure.”