He may have gone to the great aquarium in the sky, but Paul the psychic octopus is continuing to make headlines even in death.
The creature, famous for accurately predicting the results of this years’s World Cup matches, is at the centre of a conspiracy theory after his keepers said he had passed away on Monday night.
While the world took in the news of his demise in his German water tank, a Chinese filmmaker came forward to claim that he had actually died three months ago - only two days before the final in which British-born Paul once again correctly called the winner.
Jiang Xiao accused bosses at the Sea Life Aquarium in Oberhausen of subterfuge in secretly replacing the octopus with a body double.
She said she was “60 to 70 percent sure” Paul had died in July - before the World Cup final - and been replaced. And she hinted darkly that his predictive powers might not have been quite as claimed.
“Octopuses all look the same,” she said when asked how staff could have got away with a switch. “It is impossible to tell the difference.”
Others, however, have a conspiracy theory of their own.
They suspect Jiang is seeking publicity for her forthcoming thriller - which happens to be called Who Killed Paul the Octopus?
While coy about giving too much away about her film and declining to explain her assertions, Jiang suggested the Germans were unhappy that the truth might be revealed about Paul and his apparently astonishing powers.
“We have been keeping in touch with the German aquarium ever since the beginning of production but it seemed to me that they were afraid,” she said.
“The movie is about unveiling the inside story behind the ‘octopus miracle’, so they felt nervous. For the movie, we had done quite a lot of investigation and I am 60 to 70 percent sure that Paul died on July 9 and the Germans have been covering up his death and fooling us.”
She said it was “kind of strange” that Paul’s death was announced shortly after Sea Life contacted her team to say it was now willing to co-operate on her film.
Last night a spokesman for the aquarium insisted Paul had died overnight on Monday and added: “It’s certainly not true that Paul died in the summer. He was about two-and-a-half, which is the average age for an octopus.
“He died a simple and straightforward death of natural causes.”
Paul was hatched from an egg at the Sea Life Centre in Weymouth, Dorset, in 2008 before moving abroad. He had correctly predicted the results during the World Cup by selecting mussels from boxes draped in the colours of the competing teams.
Paul in July, when he correctly predicted Spain would win the World Cup. - Daily Mail