FLORIDA – Nicholas, the Clearwater Marine Aquarium’s bottlenose dolphin, chose France to defeat Argentina in the final match of the 2022 World Cup this Sunday on Telemundo.
This is Nick’s second World Cup prediction. In 2018, he correctly picked France to beat Croatia.
The Dolphin has been predicting the winners of sports matchups since 2017 and has a record of 16 out of 26.
Nicholas is presented with a choice during his normal enrichment activities. For this prediction, animal care specialists presented Nicholas with an image of the flag of France and one of Argentina, placed outside the underwater observation windows in their habitat at Ruth and JO Stone Dolphin Complex.
The animal made its selection by touching the image of the French flag.
Nicholas is a rescued bottlenose dolphin who was found stranded with severe sunburn. He was orphaned and unable to learn the necessary survival skills when he was a hatchling, so he became a permanent resident at Clearwater Marine Aquarium.
Nick has been picking the winners of sports matchups since 2017. His longest streak was from the Super Bowl in 2020 to the College Football National Championship in 2021. His most recent pick was wrong when he picked the Houston Astros to defeat the Philadelphia Phillies in the 2022 World Series.