DES MOINES, Iowa — Watch out Cincinnati: even one of your fellow big cats has picked the Rams to win the Super Bowl.
Misha the Amur — a tiger with similar markings to its large Bengal cousin — selected Los Angeles over the Bengals on Thursday at the Blank Park Zoo.
Each team's logo was scented with the same perfume so as not to influence the decision. Misha picked the winner by licking and rubbing the scented glass where the Rams' logo was placed.
“While doing a prediction is fun for us humans, keepers are encouraging Misha to display natural behaviors that a tiger would do in the wild. This type of activity is called enrichment and all animals that live at the zoo do various activities on a daily basis,” said Ryan Bickel with the zoo.
Blank Park Zoo animals have correctly picked eight of the last 11 Super Bowl winners, so Joe Burrow and the underdog Bengals might have to buck some history on Sunday to claim Cincinnati's first world championship.