{"id":152372,"date":"2026-02-05T17:13:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T17:13:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/152372\/"},"modified":"2026-02-05T17:13:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T17:13:14","slug":"lion-at-el-paso-zoo-to-predict-super-bowl-winner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/152372\/","title":{"rendered":"Lion at El Paso Zoo to predict Super Bowl winner"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">EL PASO, Texas (<a href=\"http:\/\/ktsm.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:KTSM;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">KTSM<\/a>) \u2014 The community is invited to watch Hodari, the El Paso Zoo and Botanical Gardens lion, predict this year\u2019s Super Bowl LX winner between the New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"899\" height=\"674\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/f22595f0e18c25e63775aba56c2a8b69.jpeg\"\/><img alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"899\" height=\"674\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/67968a03b56fc1f2181079f975637aa9.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Hodari will make his pick by choosing between two helmet-shaped pi\u00f1atas, one representing the Patriots and the other representing the Seahawks. Both pi\u00f1atas will be filled with identical treats and placed by zookeepers, according to the City of El Paso in a news release.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The event, which will be held at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 7, is one of the many enrichment activities zoo animals receive daily to promote well-being and support natural behaviors.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cEnrichment activities like Super Bowl predictions help keep our animals mentally and physically stimulated,\u201d El Paso Zoo and Botanical Gardens Interim Director Gary Lunsford said. \u201cWe provide enrichment every day to encourage natural behaviors and give animals opportunities to explore, problem-solve, and interact with their environment.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The City said this will be Hodari\u2019s first year predicting the big game. Last year, the zoo\u2019s mountain lions correctly predicted the Philadelphia Eagles would win.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Visitors are encouraged to come dressed in their favorite NFL team jerseys or game-day attire.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">To learn more about the El Paso Zoo, visit\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/nam11.safelinks.protection.outlook.com\/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.elpasozoo.org%2F&amp;data=05%7C02%7CLBarrios%40ktsm.com%7C3a45b2d2a3634de90ae208de5f796b84%7C9e5488e2e83844f6886cc7608242767e%7C0%7C0%7C639053172605007293%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&amp;sdata=jiqnoi7fknx%2F1t5gzokq0dagTh2%2BmU1SQQisy0FFr8A%3D&amp;reserved=0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:here;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ktsm.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTSM 9 News.;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \"> For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTSM 9 News. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) \u2014 The community is invited to watch Hodari, the El Paso Zoo and Botanical&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":152373,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[63085,138,140,139,31765,63086,10365,10388,7001,61082,27,59959],"class_list":{"0":"post-152372","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-el-paso","8":"tag-botanical-gardens","9":"tag-el-paso","10":"tag-el-paso-headlines","11":"tag-el-paso-news","12":"tag-el-paso-zoo","13":"tag-enrichment-activities","14":"tag-new-england-patriots","15":"tag-philadelphia-eagles","16":"tag-seattle-seahawks","17":"tag-super-bowl-lx","18":"tag-texas","19":"tag-zoo-animals"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152372","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152372"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152372\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/152373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}