A rookie made a big play at the Fort Worth Zoo on Thursday as Gus, a baby gorilla, predicted that the Los Angeles Rams will win Super Bowl 2019.
A rookie made a big play at the Fort Worth Zoo on Thursday as Gus, a baby gorilla, predicted that the Los Angeles Rams will win Super Bowl 2019.
The three-year-old western lowland gorilla had the task of picking between two football-shaped piñatas filled with his favorite treats. On each piñata was a paper logo, one with the Rams' and the other with the New England Patriots', stuck on with peanut butter. While his mother, Gracie, eagerly went to the Rams' football, it took Gus a little longer.
“Gus is a rookie. He has not made a Super Bowl selection before,” said Avery Elander, Fort Worth Zoo director of public relations. “He was a little timid.”
The team at the Fort Worth Zoo is hoping this long-awaited prediction will be the right one. With only one correct pick in the last five years, Elander said they're the “underdogs.”
In the neighboring Dallas Zoo, the young gorilla, Saambili, made the same prediction Thursday morning. The Dallas Zoo has gotten it right three times in the last four years.
“We're all keeping it in the animal kingdom” with the Rams pick, Elander said.
The Dallas Zoo had approached the team at the Fort Worth Zoo to have both of their young gorillas participate.
“What's cuter than a baby gorilla picking a Super Bowl winner? Two of them,” Elander said. “It was really a no-brainer for us.”
According to the Fort Worth Zoo, these events promote animals' enrichment, helping them participate in activities they would normally do in the wild, like scavenging and foraging.
“It also adds a new complexity to his space, therefore increasing physical activity and increasing his physiological well being,” Elander said.
Eventually, Gus caught on.
“He made one play, the play that mattered, and he grabbed the Rams helmet,” Elander said. “So we're going to call that a win for us.”
