Paul the Octopus was supposedly born between February and March 2010 in the sea around Elba. He was caught on March 21st by Yuri Tiberto, the manager of the Elba aquarium, in front of the inlet of Porto Caccamo (Marina di Campo). A birth certificate issued by the town hall states the date on which Paul began his adventure “on earth”, as an octopus in an aquarium. His captivity in Elba lasted around ten days. In early April he was purchased by the biologist Verena Bartsch from the aquarium of Coburg. She trained him for a couple of weeks and sold him to the Sealife centre in Oberhausen for 179 euros. Verena told this story herself in an interview to German weekly Bild am Sontag; Sealife never countered her claim.
Sealife does claim that Paul was the same octopus who guessed five results out of seven at the . So the “official” biography has him born in January 2008, from an egg hatched in the Sealife Aquarium of Weymouth. However, a captive octopus living for more than a year has never been heard of – so it seems quite unlikely that Paul was the same octopus from the Euro.
It was June 13th 2010 when, from his little tank in Oberhausen (Ruhr), Paul made his first forecast. The organisers entrusted him with guessing the German international team’s results as long as they stayed in the competition.
There were two glass cases, each with its own flag and an oyster. Paul would lift the lid off one of the glass cases and feast on the chosen victim. Germany’s first group match was a 4-0 win against Australia. No surprises there, and no headlines or flashy pictures.
Right before Germany’s second group match, Paul began creating a buzz. His forecast German defeat against Serbia flew in the face of everyone’s predictions. His press agents set to work. And on June 18th, Serbia’s 1-0 win over Germany proved Paul right. His pictures made it into the papers and the web, seizing the headlines on the World Cup in South Africa.
Thanks to Kheruef
