Super Bowl win for Steelers predicted by tiger cubs

A pair of football-playing Bengal tiger cubs at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom picked the favored Pittsburgh Steelers to defeat the underdog Arizona Cardinals 28-21 in Super Bowl XLIII on Sunday.

A 6-month-old gold female cub nicknamed “Bennie” for Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger carried for four touchdowns versus three touchdowns by a 5-month-old white male cub nicknamed “Kurt” for Cardinals quarterback Kurt Warner.

During the Cub Bowl, the playful tigers punctured five footballs while competing in a specially built stadium before fans and media.

The Vallejo, Calif., amusement park/marine park/zoo selects animals annually to predict the NFL champion.

Last year, a football-kicking African elephant named Tava got it wrong, incorrectly picking the New England Patriots over the New York Giants in Super Bowl XLII.

The year before, an Atlantic bottlenose dolphin named Merlin accurately picked the Indianapolis Colts to defeat the Chicago Bears.

Find the latest amusement and theme park news at the Los Angeles Times Funland blog: latimes.com/funland.

— Brady MacDonald, Los Angeles Times staff writer

Photos: Six Flags Discovery Kingdom

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This entry was posted on Thursday, January 29, 2009 at 5:38 pm by Brady MacDonald and is filed under California, Celebrity, Family & Kids, News, Tips & Advice, Northern California, San Francisco, Six Flags Discovery Kingdom, Theme Parks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.