She’s one of the stars of the show at the Zoo of Acadiana’s Zoo Live show, showing off her leaping abilities to the delight of crowds of zoo-goers.

But Persia, a year-and-a-half old Serval, will face one of her most difficult challenges this fall when she takes part as a guest football prognosticator in The Daily Iberian’s weekly Football Forecast contest.

Each week, three human “experts” match wits with each other and a guest animal picker to correctly predict the outcome of high school, college and professional football games. Persia will be given the choice of two toys for each game in the weekly picks, and whichever she plays with first will be her choice for that game. A dozen games are included each week.

Zoo of Acadiana Education Curator Lindsay Ezell thinks Persia will have fun making the picks.

“She wants to play with anything you put in front of her,” said Ezell. “We’ll do a bunch of different toys (for the weekly picks).”

Persia performs three shows a day on weekends, said Ezell, who works with her and the other animals in the Zoo Live animal show. The typical show at the zoo’s new Zootorium draws about 50 people, said Ezell.

The show is a way to educate people on different animal behaviors. There’s an owl that shows off its flying, a parrot that waves its wings to the audience.

And then there’s Persia, who loves to show off her jumping ability, said Ezell. A Serval is a medium-sized African wild cat, according to The Serval Conservation Organization’s home page, www. servals.org, weighing between 30-45 pounds in the wild and standing about 22 inches tall at the shoulder. Their tawny coats are spotted, similar to leopards or cheetahs, and they are characterized by long legs and necks.

Persia weighs about 20 pounds, said Ezell, who doesn’t expect her to grow much larger. Ezell said the animals in the Zoo Live show are not taught tricks; they are merely showing the types of behaviors they exhibit in the wild. Persia, in addition to jumping, stretches up to reach a toy held by Ezell, showing off her length.

“She’s pretty petite,” said Ezell. “But she’s really tall — tall and lean.”

Among her other feats is jumping to Ezell’s shoulder.

“She’s very, very friendly,” said Ezell. “She has no idea she’s a cat.”

Like a housecat, though, Persia will purr when petted. Occasionally, given the right conditions, Ezell will walk into the audience with Persia, but mostly she interacts with her onstage.

Persia is the first wild cat to serve as the animal guest picker for the football forecast. She’ll try to become only the fifth to finish higher than fourth (last) place for the season.

Dogs have been the most common animals used to prognosticate games since the program began in 1995. Ten dogs have filled the role to date, including last year’s contestant, Matti, a mixed-breed dog owned by the family of Daily Iberian news and outdoors editor Don Shoopman. Matti finished in last place in the picks.

The first animal to finish higher than fourth place was Penny, a bulldog owned by Daily Iberian production manager Ted Uhall, who finished third in 1998.

Also finishing third were Ruby, a macaw residing at the Zoo of Acadiana, in 2002; and two pets owned by the family of then-Daily Iberian librarian Chantell Villermin — Belle the ferret in 2005 and Lyzzy the Iguana in 2006.

Tank the bulldog, owned by Uhall, was the first animal chosen to round out the panel of four forecasters, in 1995. Following Tank were Timon, a mixed breed dog owned by the Shoopman family; Flash, a basset hound owned by then-Iberian sportswriter Brian Guilbeau; Penny the bulldog; Raymond, a cat owned by then-Daily Iberian Teche Life editor Jennifer May; Cocoa, a miniature poodle owned by McClelland; Ruby; Humphrey, a camel also residing at the Zoo of Acadiana; Redster, a hog owned by the Seguras, a local farming family; Madison, a black lab puppy owned by then-Iberian reporter Christine Moyer; Belle; Lyzzy; Dusti; Blue Dog, a Doberman/ Labrador mix owned by former Daily Iberian photographer Bill Smith; and Buttons, a mixed-breed dog owned by the family of sports editor Chris Landry.