Animals Vie To Be Euro 2012's Top Psychic

It's shaping up to be Eastern Europe's biggest contest this summer.

No, not the Euro 2012 soccer championship opening in Poland and Ukraine later this week, but the contest between rival "psychic" animals touted as having the ability to predict soccer results.

Ukraine on June 5 unveiled Khryak, a hog that will be brought out ahead of matches to divine their outcome. Apparently, the porker will make his predictions known by choosing between plates of food with country flags attached.

Kharkiv, not wanting to be outdone by the capital Kyiv, is touting Fred the Ferret as having soothsaying skills. Fred's handlers told RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service that he'll use the same method as his porcine counterpart in Kyiv for predicting results.

And co-hosts Poland, meanwhile, have Citta, a supposedly clairvoyant elephant.

They're all vying to take up the mantle of the late Paul the Octopus, who became a celebrity for his 2010 World Cup predictions.

But did Khryak, Citta, and Fred predict there would be others trying to get in on the act?

Waiting for their moment of psychic fame is Sissi the German dachshund and Nicholas, a llama from England.