Super Bowl Ape Eli Dies - A Utah Orangutan who rose to national fame by accurately predicting the winners in seven consecutive Super Bowls, has passed away.
On Tuesday, the Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake City broke the Super Bowl Ape Eli dies news, saying that the 24-year-old primate died from complications secondary to breast cancer.
Eli or Elijah, who was born in Topeka, Kansas, zoo but moved to the Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake, Utah in 2004, was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2011, and had undergone two surgeries to remove the masses. Recently though, he started to lose his appetite and was acting like he was uncomfortable. He succumbed to death during a medical procedure, according to the Associated Press.
He was reportedly a "staff and community favorite" and news that Super Bowl ape Eli dies has caused grief to those who knew the clairvoyant animal.
"Eli was the class clown, a total ham," Senior Great Ape Keeper Bobbi Gordon told TIME. "He aimed to entertain and please. He played gently with Acara and was very interactive with the public. He enjoyed doing silly things to make guests or keepers squeal, laugh and scream." Acara, 9, is Eli's surviving offspring with whom he lived. The zoo said he was a "gentle father" to Acara.
For the past seven years before Super Bowl ape Eli dies, he would make his precise forecasting of the winning team in the Super Bowl. Each year, he would make his Superbowl pick by selecting among goal posts or papier-mache helmets bearing team logos.
Smashing and climbing on things - as he always did - Elijah correctly predicted last year that the Seattle Seahawks would win the Super Bowl by rapidly knocking down a helmet with the Seahawks logo. And as always for the last seven years, he was right; the Seahawks won over the Denver Broncos.
Super Bowl ape Eli dies is a heartbreaking news to the NFL and animal lovers and the entertaining Orangutan will surely be remembered every Super Bowl.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
