Thuraya, the feminine Panda despatched by China to Qatar as a present for the World Cup, walks in a shelter on the Panda House Garden in Al Khor, close to Doha, Qatar.

Lujain Jo/AP

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Lujain Jo/AP

Thuraya, the feminine Panda despatched by China to Qatar as a present for the World Cup, walks in a shelter on the Panda House Garden in Al Khor, close to Doha, Qatar.

Lujain Jo/AP

The pandas have spoken.

The big pandas Thuraya and Suhail have predicted that Argentina will beat France within the World Cup last in Qatar on Sunday.

The two pandas, gifted to Qatar by China forward of this 12 months’s World Cup, selected Argentina over France in a video captured by Qatari broadcaster beIN Sports.

The pandas have been casting their guesses forward of every match since November. And to this point, they’ve finished a reasonably good job.

The pandas correctly predicted that Argentina would beat Croatia within the first semifinal match final week, they usually additionally rightly chose France over Morocco.

What are the pandas doing in Qatar?

China gifted the 2 big pandas to Qatar in October forward of the World Cup as a logo of strengthening Chinese-Qatari relations.

Thuraya, a 3-year-old feminine, and Suhail, a 4-year-old male, have Chinese names, too: Si Hai and Jing Jing, respectively. They got Arabic names upon arrival.

In October, Chinese Ambassador to Qatar Zhou Jian said the 2 pandas “will live a happy life here and bring more happiness, joy and a love to the people of Qatar and in this world.”

The observe of “panda diplomacy” — sending pandas overseas as a symbol of goodwill — dates again to the Cold War, when former Chinese President Mao Zedong gifted pandas to both the Soviet Union and the United States after every formally acknowledged the Chinese Communist Party.

In 2015, then-First Lady Michelle Obama welcomed a baby panda from China to the National Zoo, sharing the distinction with former First Lady Pat Nixon, who did the identical in 1972.

There are about 1,800 big pandas left within the wild and 500 in captivity.

They be a part of a rising cohort of animal oracles

Thuraya and Suhail aren’t the one animals making high-stakes forecasts.

Nicholas, a bottlenose dolphin of the Clearwater Marine Aquarium, is a sports activities prediction veteran who accurately selected France over Croatia within the 2018 World Cup. The 20-year-old bottlenose additionally solid his choose for this 12 months’s FIFA last, saying France would beat Argentina.

And in 2010, an octopus named Paul accurately predicted Spain’s victory over the Netherlands in South Africa.