Ngā Manu manager Matu Booth said, "Kaka and kea in particular need a lot of stimulation and to save them from being bored we have just done extensive refurbishment of Jimmy's aviary introducing more interactive opportunities for them."
Victoria University PhD researcher Daniel Donoghue came up with the idea, creating an apparatus where the birds hauled up a box tied to a chain. He put a reward in the box to see how quickly they could solve the problem about how to get to the it.
"The only way they could do it is to haul up the chain, put the chain under their foot, take another grab of the chain and haul it up a bit further and then put that under their foot.
"It's a little bit of a problem for them to solve, not all birds can do that.
"Jimmy has been making his choices using that technique.
"We put creamed rice as a reward in two boxes and attached a flag on the outside of the teams playing, and then Jimmy makes the choice."
English fans will be pleased to know that Jimmy has chosen England to take out the second semifinal tomorrow morning against Croatia.
"With the match this morning between France and Belgium he pulled up both flags to the top and then dropped them down and obviously couldn't decide at all before picking France, whereas tomorrow's result he had no problem at all, he went straight for the England creamed rice."
The exciting part about Jimmy's predictions is a lot of his choices have been surprising because they haven't been the favourites to win the match.
Jimmy's Predictions:
Uruguay vs France: France - Correct
Brazil vs Belgium: Belgium - Correct
England vs Sweden: England - Correct
Russia vs Croatia: Russia – Wrong
France vs Belgium: France – Correct
Croatia vs England: England – To be determined
