Paul the Octopus captured the world’s attention with his uncanny knack for picking football winners. During the 2010 FIFA World Cup, he went a perfect eight for eight, correctly calling the outcome of every Germany match, including their shock defeat to Serbia and their semifinal loss to Spain, before rounding it off by tipping Spain to beat the Netherlands in the final.

The way Paul would make his pick was very simple: keepers placed two mussel-filled plastic boxes in his tank, each marked with a competing team’s flag, and whichever Paul opened first was his pick.

Paul died peacefully of natural causes in October 2010. Across his lifetime, he correctly predicted 12 out of 14 matches – an 85.7 percent accuracy rate that included his earlier calls during the Euro 2008. His legend sparked a tradition that endures to this day, where, during the World Cup season, zoos and media outlets around the world anoint their own animal oracle. None, however, have come close to matching Paul’s cultural footprint.