A theme park’s mystic meerkats are looking for more World Cup success – after successfully netting a hat-trick of predictions.

Drayton Manor’s animals have been choosing the outcomes of games by dribbling a ball filled with mealworms into goals.

So far they’ve got a 100% strike rate, having backed Russia to win their opening game, as well as England’s win over Russia. And they completed the hat-trick by giving the hosts the edge against Egypt last night.

Their latest predictions are for Croatia to get the better of Argentina tomorrow (June 21), with England tipped to see off Panama on Sunday.

But according to the meerkats, there’s some bad news in store for Russia with Uruguay backed to get the better of them in their final group game.

Chris Mitchell, head of zoo operations at Drayton Manor, said: “We’re very impressed with our meerkats so far as they continue with their impressive sporting predictions for the World Cup.

“We’ve put their intuitions to the test again for another set of matches and have given them even more animal enrichment to enjoy.

“It’s amazing to watch them dribble the ball full of mealworms into the winning team’s net and we can’t wait to see if they get the next two matches correct.”

Founder of Lichfield Live and editor of the site.