AFL Grand Final: Pesto the penguin predicts whether Sydney Swans or Brisbane Lions will win 2024 premiership

The animal kingdom has produced many an oracle over the years: Mani the parakeet, Achilles the cat, Oobi-Ooobi the koala and the most famous of all, Paul the octopus.

Now Pesto the gigantic emperor penguin chick has put his powers of prediction to the test and cast his vote on who will win the 2024 Grand Final.

There is, arguably, no sporting event more appropriate for SEA LIFE Melbourne Aquarium’s biggest chick to test his oracle powers on.

Using the time-honoured tactic of food to prompt Pesto’s premiership prediction, Keepers presented the 22.5kg penguin with two buckets of fish.

One was emblazoned with the Sydney Swans’ logo, the other with the Brisbane Lions’.

The keepers plucked a fish from their respective buckets and presented them to Pesto.

The fluffy brown chick appears, in the video posted to SEA LIFE’s Instagram on Thursday, appears to ponder his options before waddling to...

The Sydney Swans bucket!

He barely gives the Brisbane Lions bucket — or the keeper holding it, who starts waving the fish toward the chick — a second glance.

Some may accuse the chick of bias for choosing the team with a bird mascot. Or maybe he was scared away by the sight of a cartoon lion.

Or, perhaps, it was the case of a baby penguin wanting a feed.

It is all plausible, no need to call for a royal commission just yet.

Pesto even reportedly spilled the beans to popstar Katy Perry who will perform at the AFL Grand Final on Saturday.

Perry shared a clip of her meeting the social media star on Thursday night.

“Visited Pesto last night,” she wrote. “He told me who will win the AFL Grand Final tomorrow but my lips are sealed.”

It remains to be seen whether Pesto has been gifted the same powers of world-renowned “oracle octopus” Paul — who had an 87 per cent success rate through his career.

But all signs point to Saturday’s clash between AFL’s 2022 and 2023 runners-up is bound to be epic.