Meet the psychic pig who has a history of sniffing out a winner – and is hoping to continue his unbroken record for this summer’s World Cup.
Mystic Marcus has a 100 per cent track record of predicting sports results according to his owner Juliette Stevens.
The black micro pig has previously guessed the winner of the 2014 World Cup and the Wimbledon tennis finals by picking apples.
And the eight-year-old prophesier even predicted Brexit and that Donald Trump would win the US presidential election.
Now Mystic Marcus is putting his skills to the test once more by forecasting the semi-finalists for this summer’s World Cup in Russia.
With bad news for England fans, Mystic Marcus expects Belgium, Argentina, Nigeria and Uruguay to make it through.
Farmer and micro pig breeder Juliette from Heage, Derbyshire, said: ‘Marcus is the seventh child of a seventh child and apparently they’re gifted with special powers so maybe that’s where it comes from.
‘A few years ago I was invited on a radio show because of Paul the octopus predicting results and they wanted to see if I had any animals that had the ability.
‘I hadn’t tried the seventh child theory out so thought I’d give it a go.
Juliette, 50, said after that first result they changed the method to make it more scientific.
Now Mystic Marcus, who has about 30 children and grandchildren, will pick from apples of a similar size and colour to make it as fair as possible.
‘He also predicted Trump would win. I said “Marcus you’ve definitely got that wrong” and then look what happened.
‘He had apples with a picture of Trump next to one and Hillary Clinton next to the other and he ate the Trump apple.
‘For one football match he didn’t eat any of the apples and it turned out to be a draw. It’s really bizarre.
‘I can’t remember which team it was but in the last World Cup there was a team that nobody thought would win a game – not in a million years and he got it right.
‘He correctly predicted that they wouldn’t go up to the premiership and that provoked a lot of anger among fans who said they wanted to turn him into a bacon sandwich.
‘Let’s hope he can do it again this time round.’
Juliette said: ‘He’s got a lovely personality – he’s totally unfazed by all the fuss. He’s really chilled out and happy to go and do stuff. He takes it all in his stride.
‘When I get home he’s always sat outside waiting for me.
‘He used to come in the house and help himself to stuff from the fridge – all my pigs did but I’ve since rescued a bull terrier dog who wants to kill anything that gets in her way so he’s staying outside for now.
‘It’s a bit of a mad house.’
According to betting company William Hill the odds on Belgium making it to the semi-finals are 7/4, Argentina 13/8, Nigeria 33/1 and Uruguay 4/1.
And whatever happened to Paul the Psychic Octopus
Paul the Psychic Octopus was the unlikely star of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
The English-born mollusc correctly predicted the outcome of eight matches during the competition – including the final – from his tank at the Oberhausen Sea Life Aquarium in Germany.
Staff at the aquarium fed Paul mussels carrying the colours of either Germany or their opponents during the competition. Whichever mussel Paul ate first went on to win the game.
Unfortunately, Paul died in October 2010 aged two-and-a-half and without passing on his rare talent to any offspring.
According to AFP a Chinese monkey known as Geda also has a gift for predicting the future.
He successfully backed Donald Trump to defeat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election.
He also picked Portugal to win the European Championships of the same year.
Then, the monkey was presented with the national flags of Portugal and France with bananas on both. It finally walked towards the national flag of Portugal and ate a banana there, the report said.
