Zoo Miami Cheetah to Predict NASCAR Sprint Cup Champion UPDATE Harvick: At 10:30am/et on Tuesday, November 17th, Zoo Miami, in partnership with the Homestead Miami Speedway, will host an event that will feature "Koda," a 2 year old cheetah from South Africa. Koda will be making his debut as Zoo Miami's new official "Wildlife Prognosticator" and will make his prediction as to who will win this year's NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship! Koda will be presented with smaller model replicas of each of the four finalist's cars. He will then make his prediction by going to and touching the car he believes will be this year's winner! Cheetahs are the world's fastest land animal with the ability of going from 0-60 mph in four seconds! With less than 12,000 believed to exist in the wild, these highly endangered cats are found in isolated pockets of Eastern and Southern Africa. Zoo Miami's Cheetah Ambassador Program has been in existence for nearly 20 years and has provided countless individuals around the country to connect with these beautiful cats in an effort to protect them for generations to come.(HMS)(11-16-2015)
UPDATE - Harvick: The trophies arrived at Zoo Miami for an event featuring Koda, a two-year-old cheetah and the official Zoo Miami "Wildlife Prognosticator." In a partnership with Homestead-Miami Speedway and Zoo Miami, Koda picked from the Championship 4 drivers diecast cars - Jeff Gordon, Kevin Harvick, Martin Truex Jr., and Kyle Busch - and made his prediction on who he thought would win the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Championship this Sunday, ultimately picking the defending champion Harvick. "I've got to be honest with you, we had an animal make a pick last year, a binturong, and he picked the guy that came in fourth place," Zoo Miami Communications Director and Goodwill Ambassador Ron Magill said. "So we fired him, he's done. So we thought we'd bring in the cheetah. The cheetah is the fastest land animal there is, seems to be a no-brainer, so we thought hopefully he can pick who is going to be the fastest car. If he picks wrong, next year we might do it with a tortoise."(see video at
HMS Facebook)(11-17-2015)