神算章魚繼任者“保羅二世”上崗

Octopus Paul II, successor to the tentacled tipster that wowed the world with his uncanny knack of correctly predicting World Cup football games, was unveiled amid great fanfare Wednesday in Germany。

The new cephalopod, also named Paul in honour of his world-famous predecessor who passed away last week, was lowered gently into his tank in a ceremony carried live on national television。

Paul the younger initially appeared more publicity-shy than his media-hungry forerunner, sticking closely to the side walls of the tank as the TV cameras rolled。

The aquarium in Oberhausen, western Germany, limited the number of photographers allowed into the room, amid hefty interest from around the world。

"We got him from near Montpellier" in southern France, an aquarium employee told the reporters。

However, the German aquarium was keen to downplay the possibility that Paul II will inflict the same pain to bookmakers as Paul I did, to the joy of punters around the world。

"No one yet knows whether Paul will be able to follow in his footsteps, or rather, his tentacle steps," aquarium spokeswoman Tanja Munzig said in a statement。

Paul I shot to fame by defying the odds to predict eight successive games during the recent World Cup in South Africa, including Spain's 1-0 triumph against the Netherlands in the final。

He died peacefully in his sleep aged nearly three on October 26, sparking hundreds of messages of condolence from his 60,000-strong Facebook fan club and some less serious comments。

It is unlikely, however, that around five-month-old Paul II will live to give predictions for the next World Cup in 2014 in Brazil, given that the life expectancy of octopuses in captivity is around three years。

Whether he will make the next European championship, in Ukraine and Poland in 2012, is also far from being a safe bet。

神算章魚“保羅”的繼任者“保羅二世”本週三在德國閃亮登場，引發衆人一陣歡呼。它的前任“保羅”因準確預測世界盃賽果而令世人矚目。

爲紀念在上週逝世的舉世聞名的前任，新上崗的章魚也取名爲保羅。它在國家電視臺現場直播的儀式中被輕輕地放進水槽中。

相比酷愛出鏡的前任，小保羅起初在公衆場合亮相還顯得很怕生。電視攝像機開機後，它緊緊地貼在水槽的側壁上。

儘管全世界都對保羅二世充滿興趣，但德國西部奧伯豪森水族館限制了可以入館的攝影師人數。

水族館一位工作人員告訴記者：“我們在法國南部的蒙彼利埃找到了它。”

然而，對於保羅二世能否像保羅一世一樣讓莊家傷心不已，德國水族館卻沒有十足的把握。保羅一世的預測曾讓全球賭客高興了一把。

水族館女發言人坦尼亞•曼茲格在聲明中稱：“沒人知道保羅能否追隨前任的腳步，或者只是章魚的腳步。”

保羅一世因在最近的南非世界盃賽期間破天荒地連續正確預測了八場賽果而一舉成名，包括決賽中西班牙1比0戰勝荷蘭捧杯。

10月26日，章魚保羅在睡夢中安然離世，年近3歲。Facebook上它的六萬多名粉絲髮表了數百條慰問信息，還有人發表了一些不太沉痛的評論。

但5個月左右大的保羅二世不太可能活到2014年，爲下屆巴西世界盃預測賽果，因爲人工飼養章魚的壽命只有大約3年。

它能否預測2012年烏克蘭和波蘭聯合舉辦的歐洲盃賽事也還留有懸念。