Compendium of the 13th Annual March Mammal Madness 2025 Tournament “MMM Celebrates the Tree of Life!” Proceedings of the Noble Zoological Society Series C Performance Sciences Recommended Citation: Hinde K, CEG Amorim, CN Anderson, G Andreasen, E Armstrong, M Beasley, J Berliner, AF Brokaw, D Brown, L Brubaker-Wittman, J Brunstrum, N Burt, M Casillas, C Chavez Ramirez, A Chen, T Chestnut, K Claypool, R Coffman, PK Connors, A Costantini, M Dasari, S David, J Dietrick, CF Ditelberg, J Drew, L Durgavich, B Easterling, K Faust, D Flitner, A Fogel, J Gabrys, Y Haridy, M Harp, I Hecht, C Henning, A Hilborn, M Janz, C Josefson, EK Karlsson, L Kauffman, J Kissel, M Kissel, J Kobylecky, J Krell, A Lane, DN Lee, KM Lesciotto, KL Lewton, JE Light, K Manegold, J Martin, T McElhinny, R. Moore, LR Moreira, A Murphy, K. Murphy, M Murphy, W Nickley, A Núñez-de la Mora, K Ostler, L Patrick, O Pellicer, V Pellicer, AM Perry, J Popescu, E Rocha, E Rowland-Schafer, M Rubio-Godoy, C Rudzis, M Sarma, S Schumann, SG Schuttler, M Sinnot, O Sparks, AC Stone, B Tanis, A Thacher, G Tomimbang, N Upham, J Varner, F Villanea, J Weber, M Wilson, E Willcocks, K Wrensford, W. Yates. 2025. Compendium of the 13th Annual March Mammal Madness Tournament 2025. Proceedings of the Noble Zoological Society Series C Performance Sciences. 4: 1-211. https://hdl.handle.net/2286/R.2.N.203136 March Mammal Madness, including this booklet, is available under Creative Commons license: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) ‘Describing at Large Their True and Lively Figure, their several Names, Conditions, Kinds, Virtues (both Natural and Fanciful), Countries of their Species, their Love and Hatred to Humankind, and the wonderful work of Natural Selection in their Evolution, Preservation, and Destruction. Interwoven with curious variety of Creative Narrations out of Academic Literatures, Scholars, Artists, Scientists, and Poets. Illustrated with diverse Graphics and Emblems both pleasant and profitable for Students of all Faculties and Professions.’ The above description satirically adapted from, and with apologies to: Edward Topsell. 1658. History of Four-footed Beasts and Serpents. Collected out of the writings of Conradus Gesner and Other Authors. Printed by E. Cote for G. Sawbridge, T. Williams and T. Johnson. London. Available in 2023 at PublicDomainReview.org Cover Image: Adolphe Millot' Illustrations for Le Larousse Pour Tous. 1909; public domain. Image (this page): Photograph of a grumpy Bandit transformed into sketch using photo editing software. For Nature Table of Contents I. SUMMARY & TOURNAMENT PRE-SEASON Highlights……………………………………………………………………. 1 Tournament Theme & Divisions………………………………….…………. 2 Rules of the Game Universe………………………………………………… 6 2025 Bracket………………………………………………………………… 8 Research the Combatants………………………………………………..…. 10 Sciencing MMM…………..…………………………………………..……. 11 MMM is Not Thunderdomes…………………….………………….……… 12 II. RESOURCES & INFORMATION Educator Resources……………………………….…………………………13 Tournament Calendar……………………………………….………………. 17 Following the Tournament Action……….…………………….……...……. 18 Message from the National Center for Science Education…………………. 19 Final Pre-Tournament Thoughts……………………………………………. 20 III. TOURNAMENT ACTION Wild Card…………………………………………………………...………. 22 Round 1 The Only Ones….……………………………………….………….. 27 Roots & Relicts…………………………………………..…...…….. 43 Same & Different………….………………………………..………. 60 Tuxedo Style….………..…………………………………...….…… 76 Round 2 The Only Ones and Roots & Relicts.…….…………………...……. 94 Same & Different and Tuxedo Style……………………..…..……. 110 Sweet 16………………………………………………………..……..…... 128 Elite Trait………………………………………………………………….. 147 Final Roar…………………………………………………………………. 160 Championship……………………………………………………………... 172 IV. REACH & IMPACT Tournament Reach………………………………………………………… 185 Challenges & Opportunities………………………………………………. 186 How Humans Learn…..…………………………………….……………... 187 Learning Contexts……………………………………………………….… 188 Player Art Submission Highlights….……………………………………... 189 V. teaMMM Visual & Video Arts………………………………………………………. 199 Library ……………………………………………………….…………… 201 Curricula…………………………………………………...……………… 202 Genetics…………………………………………………………………… 204 Battle Narration…………………………………………………………… 205 VI. Special Thanks & Huzzahs………….…………………………………. 207 2025 Highlights ● 50+ volunteer scientists, librarians, conservationists, artists, & educators create MMM annually ● Global interest from 120+ countries across 6 continents ● 1.42 Million pageviews of the ASU MMM LibGuide: ● ◦35,000+ users to the educator portal ◦Out of 900,000 LibGuides, MMM LibGuide is #15 worldwide & #9 in the USA 16k Likes 20k Followers 3k Followers The RUNDOWN N=298,000 views ● 10,600+ Educators requested MMMaterials to use with 1,028,000+ Learners ● Over 55% of all counties in the United States had at least one educator requesting MMMaterials ● 48 NEW combatant species (Total to date in MMM history N=685) ● Battle Narrations cited N=380 scholarly publications Indri • Charon Henning; Quokka • Mary C. Freisner Greater Glider • Valeria Pellicer; Coati • Olivia Pellicer 1 20 February 2025 If you’re learning, you’re winning! BRACKET GUIDE: ♥ 2025 Theme & Divisions ♥ Bracketology & Rules of the Game ♥ Researching the Combatants ♥ How Winners are Determined / Revealed ♥ LibGuide Educator Hub ♥ Calendar & Following the ACTION! ♥ Special Thanks Since 2013 2025 Tournament Theme & Divisions: 2025 marks the 10th tournament since Arizona State University Regents Professor Anne Stone launched the Genetics Team within March Mammal Madness. She works with an amazing group of scientists who study genes, genomes, and evolution across the Tree of Life. Serendipitously with MMM’s theme, 2025 marks the 100th anniversary of The State of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes, more commonly referred to as the Scopes Monkey Trial, teaching aspects of evolution in public schools in defiance of the Butler Act. In 2025, each division celebrates a different facet of evolution and the Tree of Life, from species unchanged for millions of years, to convergent evolution, to lonely last living species of their biological genus. Since 2013, MMM asks the questions ‘What Would Happen? Who Will Win?’ when two “combatants” encounter each other in an absurdly complex and wonderfully nerdy way… a simulated tournament within a structured game universe! This Tournament Guide provides key info about how to play March Mammal Madness with specific details for 2025. The Tree of Life in the Museum Labs gallery in the Exploring Life on Earth exhibit at the Milwaukee Public Museum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, photo by Michael Barera CC BY-SA 4.0 Source Wikimedia Commons March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 2 TREE of LIFE Every living organism, from the simplest bacterium to the most complex mammal, have some similarities in their genetic code. The DNA sequences in the cells of these organisms contain genes that control various biological processes, effecting everything from physical traits to metabolism to behavior. Biologists use genes to map evolutionary relationships of species using phylogenetic trees. These trees are constructed by comparing DNA sequences from different organisms, looking for similarities and differences. Closely related species share more similarities in their DNA, while distantly related species have more divergent sequences. Over time, small genetic changes, or mutations, accumulate in a lineage, which form the raw fuel of variation that can lead to the formation of new species. The Tree of Life represents the interconnectedness of all living organisms on Earth, illustrating that life forms share a common ancestry and are linked through a vast network of genes and interactions. This understanding is rooted in the findings of evolutionary biology, ecology, and genetics, showing how different species have diverged from common ancestors over billions of years, adapting to their environments and evolving into the diverse forms of life we see in the fossil record and roaming the Earth today. And some of these genes provide very particular clues about evolution and shared ancestry. These are the “house-keeping” genes that every organism typically has to do the basic functions in a cell. For examples, DNA replication and mRNA translation to make proteins are basic functions in a cell. Because these “house-keeping” functions are so essential for cells to do, these genes are less changed across evolutionary time scales. Scientists call these genes “highly conserved” in the genome. The ribosome, a molecular machine responsible for protein synthesis, is similar in all living organisms. Some biochemical pathways, such as cellular respiration, are conserved similarly across diverse life forms, indicating a common ancestor. But how did scientists figure this out? Animals, plants, fungi, bacteria, and everything else appear so different and can have genomes radically different in size and organization... so how can we see the clues of relatedness and evolution? To understand the shared inheritance of genomes across organisms, scientists focus on the basics of genetics. By looking into the genetic machinery of life, primarily the DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) molecule, which carries the instructions for building and maintaining an organism. Scientists combine the small “housekeeping” genetic differences with a calculated mutation rate to figure out the relationships among organisms. Scientists also use this method to calculate the time since species shared a common ancestor. March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 3 TREE of LIFE The current evidence shows that all life on Earth shares a single, common origin. Based on current analyses, the Last Universal Common Ancestor (LUCA) would have been a simple microorganism cell that lived in an oxygen free (anaerobic) environment about 4 billion years ago. Over time, mutations and recombinations in these microorganisms gave rise to more complex organisms. Animals didn’t appear until 650-800 million years ago, and mammals even more recently! COMMON TOURNAMENT JOKES ♥ STOAT STATS In 2016, Dr. Kristi Lewton narrated a battle between two mustelids (wolverine & stoat). To show the relative weight difference, she said 1 Wolverine = 67 stoats. Several nights later, Kristi reported that stoat conversions were in the scholarly literature since at least 1866, when natural historian George Allman described an otter shrew as “somewhat larger than a stoat” in the Transactions of the Zoological Society of London. Since then, the coMMMunity finds new and hilarious ways to convert measurements into units of stoat #StoatsAsMeasurement. See @stoatamatic As these organisms spread across the planet and adapted to various environments, species diverged into the wide variety of species that exist today. The Tree of Life reflects this branching pattern, where each branch represents a distinct lineage, and the trunk signifies the common ancestor of all life. Anne Stone, PhD & Nate Upham, PhD Arizona State University ♥ FIGS In 2017, a battle encounter between spider monkey and binturong involved figs and accusations of narrative discrepancies of who first departed the field of battle. The controversy, dubbed “FIG-gate,” led to the first ever emergency MMM press conference. Since that time, figs are a delicious, nutritious sore spot of hilarity. Read More: ♥ DURGAVITCHED Since Dr. Lara Durgavich narrated octopus dissolving from lack of salinity when transported to a freshwater environment in 2018, particularly catastrophic and ignoble deaths are considered to be “Durgavitched.” Barua et al. 2022. What Is Next-Generation Sequencing and Why do we Need it?. Front. Young Minds. 10:746502 Aguilar 2019. Evolution in a Bottle. Front. Young Minds. 7:75. ♥ CARNAGE Many battle encounters conclude with scientifically-accurate, seemingly undramatic withdrawals. Bloodthirsty players bemoan such outcomes, demanding carnage… until they get gruesome carnage and then switch to wails of “Not like this.” Botanists also mourn the rampant #PlantCarnage by herbivores. ♥ INCIDENTAL ORCA / MUSTELID / ? Sometimes a non-combtatant character makes repeated appearances in different battles during the tournament. March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 4 2025 DIVISIONS SAME & DIFFERENT Division: Animals from very different lineages can have similar traits because they have similar adaptations for types of lifestyles- such as traits for digging or gliding from tree to tree. This division celebrates Convergent Evolution! The ONLY ONES Division: Lonely branches of the evolutionary tree, this division features species that are the last or only living species of their Genus. ROOTS & RELICTS Division: Species that have endured for millions of years mostly unchanged or in a remnant population. Also pro-tip, check your nearest dictionary to learn the difference between relic & RELICT. TUXEDO STYLE Division: Mammals that are “monochromatic” one color- species that are shades of grey all the way from from snow to sable. These species may be black and white, but who will end up…RED ALL OVER?! March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 5 BRACKETOLOGY RULES of the MMM Game Universe ✩ Combatants are arranged in a four division, single elimination tournament. ✩ Combatants have assigned seeds 1-16, with “1” being the best-ranked combatant within the Division and “16” typically the worst-ranked combatant. Same & Different Division is special in 2025, pay close attention to subDivision. ✩ A single individual at peak “combat” condition represents their species as combatant- for some species this may be a male or female, depending on the natural history of the species. ✩ Keep season in mind- March is spring in the Northern hemisphere & Autumn in the Southern hemisphere. Combatant condition & priorities may vary with season, depending on the natural history. ✩ The combatants are considered as encountering each other on a field of battle: ⭑ Rounds 1, 2, & 3 the better/lower seeded combatant has Home Habitat Advantage. The worse-seeded combatant is the visitor, unless the combatants live in the same habitat. Adbar CC BY-SA 3.0 Wikimedia Commons ⭑ Rounds 4, 5, & 6 (the Elite Trait, the Final Roar, & the Championship), the field of battle is randomized among 4 possible habitats: SEA CAVE: rocky caverns that may be inundated from the tide or fully submerged by ocean levels. GEOTHERMAL WETLANDS: created by hot water flowing from thermal streams, hot springs, and geysers. SKY ISLANDS: isolated mountains surrounded by radically different lowland environments. TEMPERATE BROADLEAF FOREST: Forests with deciduous trees dominant, distinct seasons, & distinct forest levels of canopy, understory, shrub, and ground. ✩ To “win” a battle, a combatant has to be holding the field of battle at the end of the encounter. Withdrawing from the encounter, fleeing, or total knock out (carnage) count as a defeat. March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 6 BRACKETOLOGY The 2025 Logo color palette was created from nature. Using the coolers.co website, we made the palette specifically from a gorgeous photo of one of the most famous geothermal features on earththe Grand Prismatic Spring in Yellowstone National Park. Heat-loving microbes are adapted for the extreme conditions of the mineral rich hot springs. The microbes collect into large mats and appear as some of the vibrant colors of the Grand Prismatic. 2025 Bracket— A few things to NOTE: US National Park Service, David Restivo; Public Domain ⭑The winner of the WILD CARD, will be entering the tournament as a 14-seed in the GLIDERS Sub-Division in the Same & Different Division. ⭑To accommodate the change-up of the wild card, for this year ONLY, we have rotated a couple branches of the bracket so the seed positions are atypical BUT the seed match-ups remain standard. (If that does not make sense to you, it’s not for you and don’t worry about it). ⭑The following pages provide the Bracket with common names in English and then a bracket of the Latin binomials for folks who want to ensure that they are reading about the correct Species (sometimes subspecies). The LibGuide Bracket Folder includes Spanish language Brackets, a screen-reader bracket, JUMBO brackets that print out on 5 pages. March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 7 March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 8 March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 9 Research the Combatants To reach resources for different tournament user groups, go to the player, learner, and educator portals. Within the learner portal, students have pages designed for their grade level with grade-appropriate links & resources. RESEARCH THE COMBATANTS! As we know, not all information on the World Wide Web is reliable. For this reason, we curated the great, freely available resources for researching the combatants at the March Mammal Madness LibGuide. These links will help you learn about the 2025 combatants and pick your winners through to the Champion! AND our friends over at Oxford University Press have put together a special collection of articles about the 2025 combatants! Great articles from Journal of Mammalogy, Mammalian Species, Behavioral Ecology, Integrative and Comparative Biology, Current Zoology provide key information about the combatant species! OUP has made these collections freely available for MMM players each year since 2017! March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 10 Science into Story HOW BATTLE OUTCOMES ARE DETERMINED BY MMM: 🌎A teaMMM of scientists research the combatant traits and habitats. Then we estimate a probability that combatant A wins vs. combatant B wins within the specific habitat of the encounter. 🌎Attributes considered in estimating battle outcome include weaponry, armor, body mass, speed, fight style, physiology, attitude and motivation. Radio program put on by children of Junior Artists Club Federal Art Project WPA Phoenix AZ 1935; public domain, Wikimedia Commons 🌎From that probability estimation, a random number generator (RNG), weighted according to the estimated probability, determines the outcome of the encounter and which combatant advances in the tournament. HOW BATTLE OUTCOMES ARE REVEALED BY MMM: 🌎Scientist-narrators write a “battle story” that explains the outcome using evidence from published research about the species and their habitat. 🌎The use of the RNG allows for the possibility, if not the probability, of UPSETS (a worse-ranked combatant defeating a better-ranked combatant). 🌎The outcomes of the encounters between combatants are revealed as though being observed in real time by the scientist narrator, like an announcer at a sporting event calling the play-by-play. 🌎March Mammal Madness does not “force” the combatants into a simulated fight. In nature, many animals ignore, avoid, or tolerate one another. 🌎Fights can be risky: injuries, distractions, wasted energy. MMM showcases not only physical traits for “battle,” but also traits for decision-making: motivation & assessment. 🌎 March Mammal Madness turns science into “One RNG to rule them all” -Tolkien, paraphrased evidence-based story. Dramatic reveals, plot twists, and outside interference can be used to explain the outcomes of the combatant encounters. Ring Nebula, M57 or NGC 6720. ESA/Webb, NASA, CSA, Barlow (UCL), Cox (ACRI-ST), R Wesson (Cardiff University) March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 11 THUNDERDOME weigh risks, benefits, & costs of a conflict, contest, challenge, or danger. Even most animals with spectacular weaponry will signal “You don’t want to mess with this” hoping the challenger or threat will back down before it gets to a fight (Palaoro & Peixoto 2021). Remember, March Mammal Madness simulations do not force the animals to BATTLE like Gladiators. This is NOT Thunderdome or a video game. MMM contrives encounters where the animals arrive with their physical and behavioral traits. And those behavioral traits include adaptations to AVOID combat. Animals have adaptations to choose their battles wisely (Dröge et al 2017; Stankowich & Blumstein 2005). Natural selection has favored awesome adaptations for those who fight, flee, hide, peek, retreat, & sneak away to live another day (aka survive long enough to achieve reproductive success & thereby contribute traits to subsequent generations, iteratively over evolutionary timescales). Or in a well known idiom: discretion is the better part of valor, which Merriam-Webster dictionary describes as “better to be careful than to do something that is dangerous and unnecessary.” Fighting is RISKY for animals. Fights can cause immediate death, slow death from infection or starvation (if an injury interferes with hunting, foraging, or chewing). The more closely matched combatants are, the greater their risk of losing. Even the winner can be injured. AND everything takes energy— chasing prey, running away from predators, battling competitors— sometimes A LOT OF ENERGY! And yes, for herbivores who eat leaves, energy grows on trees, BUT the time for chewing & enzymes for digesting are limited. Also tooth enamel wears down. Sometimes, rarely, a much less likely combatant triumphs. This is why we write battles with unexpected, evidence-grounded plot twists. This is part of the suspense, surprise, and collective experience of March Mammal Madness. Across many animal species, natural selection has favored animals whose traits enable them to respond smartly to the situation- with minds to March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 12 LibGuide Educator Hub The LibGuide Educator Hub has many, many, many resources for you to use MMM with your learners. But it can be overwhelming. PRO-TIPS: • Review this Educator Guide closely. • To get editable versions of the lesson plans, worksheets, slides, etc. In Google drive go to FILE & MAKE A COPY or DOWNLOAD. Please do not ask for editing permission, as we can not allow the 6000+ educators signed up for MMM to have editing access to the main documents. • Manage Emotions: 64 combatants WON’T be the Champion. Some students become very emotionally invested in their bracket and find the brief highlights from the classroom videos less convincing when their pick is defeated. Please direct these students to the evening MMMagazine to learn more of the science that explains the battle outcome. • Please grade on their research & arguing from evidence for their bracket picks. Please do not have their grade be about their bracket score- there will be upsets in the tournament, the bracket is designed for learning about really cool organisms & ecosystems. We revamped the Educator Page at the LibGuide! There are now more streamlined sections of resources. • For K-5, students may find it better to work in groups on research, make predictions in one Division at a time & then take a break. Some little kids pick cute over fierce. Busted Bracketeer bracket allows a do-over before the Sweet Sixteen. -Brackets -Starter Pack (most essential MMMaterials) -Expansion Pack for going ALL IN on MMM -Spanish MMMaterials -Get Hyped- logos, collector cards, playlists -Online Bracket Scorers -Crowd-Sourced Educator Resources • We do not encourage students to join social media to follow the Tournament. The Tournament Battle Events lesson plan can be completed using the Evening Magazine or PLAY-by-PLAYs March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 13 LibGuide Educator Hub STEAM work by students, shared by their teachers ALL March Mammal Madness brackets & materials are provided freely as an OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCE including multiple Lesson Plans anchored to a STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, & Mathematics) approach and tailored to US Next Generation Standards for Life Science, Language Arts, and Social Studies. Lesson Plans include teacher instructions, slide decks, and student worksheets. These lesson plans are designed to support content knowledge (such as animal traits, food chains) and skill learning (research, arguing from evidence, presenting). Life Sciences Lesson Plans Pre-Tournament Combatant Research* Tournament Battle Outcomes STEAM & Humanities Lesson Plans K-12 Visual Arts Tumbling Blocks* K-12 Combatant Hype Poster* K-12 Language Arts HAIKU* Science Writing – The Championship Battle that SHOULD HAVE BEEN* 4th Grade Every Kid Outdoors Science & Writing *Also available in Spanish Hundreds of player, learner, and educator artwork and other creative initiatives were included in a 25 page photo essay in the 2024 Compendium. Artwork was submitted via the March Mammal Madness page. We will once again welcome artwork submissions via FB for inclusion in the annual Compendium. March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 14 LibGuide Educator Hub Introduced in 2021, the Combatant Info Slides provide key info to help young learners, special education learners, and learners with limited access to the internet. The teaMMM created these in response to feedback from the general public via social media and via the educator survey. Available in English & Spanish. EDUCATOR HUB Since 2021, March Mammal Madness has provided infrastructure for a crowd-sourced database for educators to link and share MMM resources they have created for use with their learners. In 2023, educators shared >75 resources they had created, including ● Assignments ● Aniwordle Game ● Auto-Scoring Brackets ● Vocabulary EduProtocols ● Quizzes ● Games ● Poster Board Labels ● Combatant Collector Trading Card Game ● Notetaking Worksheet to Fill Out while watching the MMM “How to Play” video ● Templates for Student Research The slides provide key info: ● Common Name & Scientific Name ● Key Physical & Behavioral Traits ● Diet/Nutrition ● Position in Food Chain ● Source of Info ● Photograph of the Animal ● Silhouette of the Animal compared to adults & kids! The form to submit links to 2025 materials is open at the LibGuide and below that is a link to the database of submitted materials. In 2024 there were 90+ submissions from the coMMMunity! A Template Slide Decks now in English have common name, Latin binomial, image, & silhouettes.The students can be assigned research on traits, biome, diet, and position in the food chain. Most combatant species have entries in the Animal Diversity Web, but some do not. This spreadsheet gives guidance for best sources of info for research. tes Certifica In Hype s! Material Two 2025 combatants are not well known in public materials, so we do not recommend assigning Cyanobacteria or Mycorrhizal Fungus to students March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 15 LibGuide Educator Hub For first time users of MMM at Middle School and above, we recommend 1) distribute the bracket, show the MMM trailer & Introduction to MMM slides 2) assign students the Life Sciences pre-tournament combatant research lesson plan. 3) students present their research to their classmates (poster session, slide presentation, deliver a “speech”) 4) students complete their bracket all the way to Champion with guesses informed by their own and shared research 5) Educators can show the Rundown videos or read summaries so students know the outcomes. 6) Learning = Winning & HAVE FUN! Friend of the tournament, & Wildlife Education Coordinator for the Arizona Game & Fish Department, Eric Proctor is rolling out some great MMM-themed resources over at www.azgfd.com (scroll down to the coati tile!). There will also be a series of evening webinars Feb, March, & April for some really cool learner activities and educator opportunities. The National Center for Science Education prepared a great “Nature’s Doppelganger” Convergent Evolution Lesson Plan with Same & Different Combatants! LINKED HERE Full NCSE “Lose the Ladder” Curricula here March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 16 TOURNAMENT CALENDAR The battles will be live announced on Bluesky and can be viewed by following the account @mmmletsgo.bsky.social or by following the hashtag #2025MMM. Bluesky events begin at 8PM EDT and typically last 2 hours. We are not saying that X has become a ghost forest from a catastrophic saltwater intrusion, but we’re not NOT saying that either. Obviously this analogy works perfectly because everyone remembers everything they learned about ghost forests when the random habitat kicked in for Wolverine vs. Penguin in the Elite Trait in 2023. Moving on. If your first choice champion exits the tournament early, don’t despair! On March 25th, after the 2nd round battles are over, swing over to the LibGuide and become a Busted Bracketeer! Make your new picks based on what you’ve learned about the combatants and the tournament in the first 2 rounds and you can keep cheering for your new chosen champion! Download a busted bracketeer bracket that starts with the Sweet 16 and make new predictions of the combatants that are still in it to win it! March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 17 Learning Tournament Outcomes Tournament results are available through the March Mammal Madness LibGuide results page. Players can choose the very detailed play-by-plays, the Evening MMMagazine, the brief highlights the Rundown animated video, or just an updated bracket! PLAY-by-PLAY: Tournament tweets are combined into a PDF so that every aspect of the battle encounters, pomp & circumstance, artwork, genetics info, & inspirational intermission are archived as performed in the tournament. Available typically by 9PM Arizona time following an evening’s battles at the LibGuide Results page. Evening MMMagazine: Sports-style summaries of the battle events for each battle. The Evening MMMagazine is provided as a PDF with images & layout, like the guide you are reading now. A text-only version for screen-readers & text-only will be transformed into Spanish using Google AI translation. Available typically by 9PM Arizona time following an evening’s battles at the LibGuide Results Page. ANIMATED VIDEO: NEW in 2025! With MC Marmot on medical leave, the new sports show “THE RUNDOWN!” jumps in to deliver the dirty deets of the tournament battles (and reverse years of blatant pro-rodent bias). The videos are typically 5-10 minutes of each battle’s highlights, appropriate for all ages, & Linked through the LibGuide Results Page the morning after tournament events. March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 18 Now a message from 2025 MMM co-sponsor: stand — ripe for misconceptions, in other words! We at NCSE understand the need to give students hands-on, engaging learning experiences in today’s science classes — activities that remind students of the curiosity-driven, exploratory, and of course fun aspects of science learning. NCSE believes that whether you’re a scientist, science teacher, parent, or concerned citizen, we have something to offer you. Please check us out. “For more than 40 years, the National Center for Science Education has worked tirelessly to ensure the accurate teaching of evolution. We’ve collaborated with renowned biologists, fought off ideological incursions into the classroom through the courts and at statehouses around the country, and engaged directly with K-12 science teachers so they could help their students overcome common misconceptions about evolution. So we’re absolutely thrilled to be a co-sponsor of this year’s March Mammal Madness. Learn more about NCSE, naturally select our evolution lesson sets, and explore all of our classroom resources. We couldn’t agree with the MMM slogan more: “If you’re learning, you’re winning!” Let’s all be winners!” As a fun, engaging, worldwide phenomenon, MMM creates a vehicle for profound learning opportunities. It’s through their participation in MMM that students get a chance to explore concepts like convergent evolution and natural selection, concepts that might otherwise prove to be abstract and difficult to under- m Dece 2005 ber March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 19 FINAL Pre-Tournament Thoughs: Remember, March Mammal Madness features 65 species, but only one will be crowned 2025 Champion. Prepare yourselves for heartbreak, hilarity, and horror as fortunes and fates rise and fall, in a glorious narrative of science. The philosopher, and natural historian, Aristotle once said "In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous." In coming weeks we will share a journey across our world in a celebration of animals, adaptations, and habitats. March Mammal Madness is made possible not only through the incredible efforts of the teaMMM & wider coMMMunity, but the too often unsung heroes of science. The animal and ecosystem science we weave into story, the hundreds of citations each year comes from the works of thousands of scientists, scholars, and conservationists. This tournament has been made possible ONLY through the decades of funding for life science, earth science, social science, health, and conservation research, often from the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the United States Agency for International Development. These scientists and these organizations have been essential for improving our understanding of the natural world. And that understanding is a key aspect to protecting our planetary ecosystems today and for future generations. Please stand with us to defend science & protect nature. The Tournament begins with the WILD CARD Match on MARCH 10! Research the combatants, make your predictions, and enjoy this wild ride to the Championship. Most importantly remember, scores are just a number, but, if you’re learning, you’re winning! GAME ON! Further reading about MMM: Hinde, et al. 2021. March Mammal Madness and the power of narrative in science outreach. Elife 10: e65066. March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 20 TOURNAMENT ACTION 21 10 March 2025 If you’re learning, you’re winning! Since 2013 for heartbreak, hilarity, and horror as fortunes and fates rise and fall, in glorious narratives of science. The tournament will bring you obscure science, cliffhangers, carnage, non-player characters, & SO MUCH MORE! WELCOME TO MARCH MAMMAL MADNESS 2025, the LUCKY number 13th Tournament. Since 2013, we have been delving into the natural history and science of animal encounters, turning scholarly science into riveting stories. In coming weeks we will share in a journey across our world in a celebration of animals, adaptations, ecosystems, and our coMMMunity. So BUCKLE UP BUTTERCUPS, this is March Mammal Madness! Sometimes it's CARNAGE, sometimes it's BASIC, sometimes it's UPSET CITY where the wrasse is green and the gulls are gritty... But always, as we sleuth the B-sides & dusty deep tracks of natural history, March Mammal Madness is here, from tangled bank to misty mountains to salty shore, to trip the LIFE fantastic through the splendor of our natural world. If you're learning, you're winning! You’ve researched the combatants, you’ve considered the habitats, made your picks, and now we are on the road to the Championship! March Mammal Madness features 65 species, but only one will triumph above the rest. Prepare yourself Jessie Eastland CC BY-SA 4.0 Source Wikimedia Commons March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 22 TREE of LIFE In 2025, to celebrate ten tournaments of the genetics team, our theme is the TREE of LIFE. The Evening MMMagazine will also include awesome essays from Genetics Teammm folks delving deeper into the topics that are near and dear to their hearts and deeper insights into the combatant species and Divisions. Starting with FORCES OF EVOLUTION! Genetic drift is the change in the frequency of variants due to chance events. So if an individual or group gets lucky or, alternatively, hit by the proverbial bus (or volcano!), the change in allele frequencies in the population is the result of genetic drift. The four forces of evolution are mutation, migration, genetic drift, and natural selection. Mutation creates new variants (aka alleles), migration moves variation around, and natural selection affects the survival of variants. But genetic drift is the WILD one. Taro Taylo3 CC BY-SA 2.0 Wikimedia Commons Chance events tend to have bigger effects in small populations than in large ones. Tonight’s wild card battle features the flying frog (Rhacophorus nigropalmatus) and the flying northern squirrel (Glaucomys sabrinus). Flying frog’s habitat in the geologically active regions of Malaysia and Indonesia might have provided many opportunities for chance events to affect their evolution. One particularly dramatic event was the eruption of the Toba supervolcano about 74,000 years ago on Sumatra. While we don’t have detailed population data for this flying frog, patterns of variation in three species of parachuting frogs in the same genus point to this eruption affecting genetic diversity among populations in northern Sumatra. Boom! Prof. Anne Stone O’Connell et al. 2020. Impacts of the Toba eruption and montane forest expansion on diversification in Sumatran parachuting frogs (Rhacophorus). Molecular Ecology, 29: 2994-3009. Illustration from 1855 journal entry by Alfred Russel Wallace, co-originator of the theory of evolution by natural selection with Charles Darwin March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 23 Northern Flying Squirrel vs. Flying Frog In North America, late winter remains cold in a spruce forest cast in bright moonlight. Northern Flying Squirrel, within the last lineage of nocturnal squirrels, scampers out of his nest in a tree hollow, having stayed fairly active throughout winter. Northern Flying Squirrels (Glaucomys sabrinus), living throughout much of North America, have large black eyes adapted for night vision, with grey and tan fur with white and grey tummies. These tree rodents can tip the scales at 1/3rd of a pound. Not truly able to FLY, instead this rodent is able to glide from a furry membrane that extends from "the forelegs to the hindlegs from ankle to wrist" known as a patagium. Amongst the spruce trees, the Northern Flying Squirrel LEAPS from high in the canopy, extending his legs wide so his skin flap (patagium) allows him to glide. His white belly flashes in the moonlight against the lichen laden trees. But in the light of the moon, for animals who are sensitive to ultraviolet light, the squirrel glows with pink fluorescence as he glides down 60 feet toward the base of a tree. Wallace's Flying Frog (Rhacophorus nigropalmatus), found primarily in Malayasia & Indonesia, is a vibrant emerald green with with lighter yellow on its sides, toe pads & snout. The "Flying" Frog with foot parachutes was first illustrated & described scientifically by none other than Alfred Russel Wallace in 1855, co-originator of the theory of evolution by natural selection with Charles Darwin! TONIGHT'S BATTLE LOCATION DETERMINED BY COIN TOSS... IS Although both Frog and Squirrel have heads, only Squirrel has a tail, Frog having absorbed his tadpole tail during development. Heads: Frog's late summer Tropical Forest or Tails: Squirrel's late winter Temperate Boreal Forest... and the coin toss determines... TAILS! March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 24 using memory for prime truffle patches... possibly looking for coarse woody debris as a surface clue. MEANWHILE in the Bornean rainforest, a Flying Frog uses his large, grippy toe pads to climb up beside a large leaf in the primary evergreen rainforest, his emerald green coloration fantastic camouflage with the foliage... his grip slips.... Flying Frog falls from 50 feet up in the canopy! Falling Flying Frog KICKS his leg to twist his body- AIR-RIGHTING IN MILLISECONDS spreading wide his toes to deploy his foot parachutes! Flying Frog shifts slightly to parachute-glide to a target tree branch when his trajectory glides him through the #MMMagic translocation portal! Flying Frog lands onto the forest floor directly in front of Northern Flying Squirrel! DISTURBED by the arrival of the frog, Northern Flying Squirrel gives a cluck-chuckle sound at the tropical arrival. Body to body, not counting squirrel's tail or frogs back legs, Flying Squirrel is 50% bigger. Flying Squirrel stand-hops at Flying Frog. Flying Frog's main escape skill LEAP-GLIDE is USELESS here on the ground, FROG deploys LEAP-KICK with his powerful back frog legs! Northern Flying Squirrel lands on his target tree trunk and hops a few feet down to the forest floor. With the snow melted away, the flying squirrel can take a break from lichen for something more DELICIOUS! Northern Flying Squirrel is searching for TRUFFLES! Squirrel is rootin' snootin' sniffing for truffles; possibly Flying Frog's kick strikes Northern Flying Squirrel's loose patagium... doing NO DAMAGE! March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 25 Northern Flying Squirrel, much heavier jumps onto Flying Frog, and Squirrel's sharp incisors bite into Flying Frog. Northern Flying Squirrel won't have to wait for spring eggs & baby birds for fresh meat. Northern Flying Squirrel DEFEATS Flying Frog! Narration by Prof. Katie Hinde. CITATIONS Abbey D. 2000. "Rhacophorus nigropalmatus" (On-line), Animal Diversity Web. Accessed 3-6-2025 at animaldiversity.org/accounts/Rhacophorus_nigropalmatus/ IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) 2021. Rhacophorus nigropalmatus. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2024-2 Kohler, A. M., Olson, E. R., Martin, J. G., & Anich, P. S. (2019). Ultraviolet fluorescence discovered in New World flying squirrels (Glaucomys). J Mammalogy, 100:21-30. Malamuth, E. and M. Mulheisen 2011. "Glaucomys sabrinus" (On-line), Animal Diversity Web. Accessed March 06, 2025 at animaldiversity.org/accounts/Glaucomys_sabrinus/ Newar, S. L., Schneiderová, I., Hughes, B., & Bowman, J. (2024). Ultrasound and ultraviolet: Crypsis in gliding mammals. PeerJ, 12, e17048. Smith, W. P. (2007). Ecology of Glaucomys sabrinus: habitat, demography, and community relations. Journal of Mammalogy, 88(4), 862-881. Wang, H., Wang, L., Shao, J., Liu, T., & Dai, Z. (2013). Long hindlimbs contribute to air-righting performance in falling tree frogs. Journal of Mechanics in Medicine and Biology, 13(06), 1340023. Wells-Gosling, N., & Heaney, L. R. (1984). Glaucomys sabrinus. Mammalian species, (229), 1-8. Valeria Pellicer! ko-fi.com/veppart www.vpellicerart.com Olivia Pellicer! ko-fi.com/opellisms www.opellisms.com Mary Casillas Freisner! ko-fi.com/marycasillas marycasillas.wix.com/paintings MMM Art Director Charon Henning! ko-fi.com/oddangel www.charonhenning.com Thank you to these organizations for their generous support! March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 26 12 March 2025 If you’re learning, you’re winning! Since 2013 Justin Philbois / CC 1.0 / Wikimedia Commons Addax (1) vs. Grant's Golden Mole (16). The largest male Addax (Addax nasomaculatus) tips the scales at 275 lbs with 3 spiral twists of his 3.5 foot horns. Females are a bit smaller than the males and also wield spiral horns. Although the smallest of the golden moles, Grant's Golden Mole (Eremitalpa granti) does have the longest, softest fur of pale grayish-yellow with a silvery sheen. Tonight, the Addax, the "most desert loving large ungulate" stands in the Tin Toumma desert of north central Republic of Niger. Prevalent winds have created epic dune fields. Over the winter, Addax's sandy white coat darkened to gray, with a heavy mass of long brown hair on neck, shoulders, and forehead. Now springtime, he is shedding clumps of his winter coat. The Addax stands in perfect stillness on wide, flat hooves, shaped like a half moon, adapted for traveling over the desert sands. Beneath the Addax, a desert beetle skitters along in the shifting sands, tiny insect feet (tarsi) causing minor seismic vibrations. TONIGHT we begin the real action of 2025 March Mammal Madness with THE ONLY ONES! In biology, organisms are typically organized systematically Domain, Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species. To keep track you can use this memory trick (mnemonic) Do Keep Pond Clean Or Frog Gets Sick. Tonight’s Division features mammal “combatants” that are the only living species of their genus. The mammals in this division are “lonely” branches of the evolutionary tree showing marked differences from other living species in their family. March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 27 R1: THE ONLY ONES Puma (2) vs. Star-nosed mole (15) The Puma (Puma concolor) weighs in at 265 lbs (545 stoats), 7'10" long (~7 stoats), and almost 3 ft tall (~3.5 stoats)! Spanning the Americas, and going by many names- cougar, mountain lion, catamount, these cats reflect Bergmann's rule and tend to be smaller near the equator. The Star-nosed Mole (Condylura cristata) is 2.65 oz (1/3rd stoat) and 8" long (3/5th stoat) with a strikingly unique face! The mole gets its name from the sensory organ surrounding their nose with TWENTY-TWO finger-like tendrils to feel their environment and find prey. Meanwhile, in the Namib Desert, a beast glides beneath the surface, hunting for prey… the tiny Grant’s Golden Mole (0.07 lbs, 35g). In the dunes, Golden Mole does not even notice MMMagical transportation into new sands. Without eyes and unable to see, Grant's Golden Mole can hunt by detecting vibrations. He continues sand-swimming toward his next meal. The Golden Mole leaves no tunnel, the sand collapses behind him as he sand-swims to the surface below the beetle by Addax. Ambush-surfacing, Golden Mole grasps the beetle just as Addax begins to walk across the dune! With a brief death shriek, Golden Mole is crushed between sand and hoof! ADDAX DEFEATS GOLDEN MOLE! Narrated by Katie Hinde. US National Parks Service / CC 1.0 / Wikimedia Commons Star-nosed Mole is searching for grubs near the Pinawa Channel and Winnipeg River in southern Manitoba, CA. As her star-nose tendrils touch a delicious worm, she moves at THE SPEED OF NERVES (120 milliseconds) to grab it...BUT #MMMagic translocation IS FASTER! Star-nosed Mole arrives amongst the moon shadows cast on the forest floor of a woodland-grassland of the Santa Susana Mountains of Southern California! The quiet night is broken by a pause pause . What the poorly developed eyes of the Star-nosed Mole cannot see is Puma pulling a recently killed carcass toward a hiding spot… March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 28 Between mouthfuls, Saiga looks out at his herd of 40. A couple generations ago, in 2015, 60% of the world's saiga died from a bacterial infection in only 3 weeks, but population sizes have rebounded in recent years. US National Parks Service / CC 1.0 / Wikimedia Commons Having initially gorged, Puma will now conceal the kill from competitors and scavengers. With a violent pivot and pull, Puma rolls Star-Nosed Mole under the dragging deer carcass! Trapped under the deer carcass, Star-nosed Mole is dragged and gets caught against the jagged edge of a rock jutting from the dirt!! The deer carcass is pulled away as Puma moves further to cache the deer carcass! Star-Nosed Mole gasps for air in the leaf litter!! ALL OF A SUDDEN, puma’s paw gathers leaves together to cover the deer, Including the Star-nosed Mole! In a final crush, Mole’s carcass becomes part of the forest debris hiding the deer carcass. PUMA CRUSHES STAR-NOSED MOLE!!! Narrated by Gretchen Andreasen and Katie Hinde. Andrey Giljov / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0 Meanwhile 8,000 miles away in the Parque Nacional das Emas in central Brazil, the omnivorous Woolly Giant Rat is hunting for insects in its open grassland. Woolly Giant Rat is often active at twilight (crepuscular) and nighttime. Dashing at a beetle, #MMMagic translocates Woolly Giant Rat to Kazakhstan, where he finds himself surrounded by a forest of thin Saiga limbs. Saiga (3) vs. Woolly Giant Rat (14) Saiga (Saiga tatarica) are a small antelope measuring in at 31.5in (~3.2 stoats) tall at the shoulder and 99lb (~200 stoats). Although small in body, they have a lot of face! Males have horns up to 16in long. Native to South America, the Woolly Giant Rat (Kunsia tomentosus) has coarse, dense, dark gray fur, short limbs, and long, powerful claws. "Giant" in this case is a relative term, as the Woolly Giant Rat has a top weight of approx. 1.3lb (2.75 stoats). #StoatsAsMeasurement In the Betpak-Dala region of Kazakhstan, Saiga is grazing on some lichen and wormwood, preferred wintertime nutrition when many of the other 80 species in his diet are less available. Adult Kunsia tomentosus mark-release study Bolivia. Image LH Emmons. Source: Bezerra & Pardiñas 2016. March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 29 R1: THE ONLY ONES Saiga usually spots the approach of predators or other animals by scanning the open landscape, and skip-startles a step at the rodent in his midst. Woolly Giant Rat is more surprised by the cold, dry air! The average March temperature in Betpak-Dala is 28F (-2C), very different from the Woolly Giant Rat's tropical habitat. Saiga investigates the newcomer, SNOOFLING air through his cavernous nostrils. Exposed and chilled, Woolly Giant Rat tries to tunnel into the soil of the steppe. His strong claws are well adapted for digging; he has what scientists call a "semifossorial" lifestyle. But the clay-based soil makes digging slow-going! Woolly Giant Rat's claws are getting nowhere fast as Saiga continues to watch and woofle-snort. Woolly Giant Rat, unable to quickly escape underground and uninterested in joining the Saiga herd, dashes away from Saiga's shuffling hooves and sniffing snoot, fleeing across the open country and off the Field of Battle! SAIGA OUTLASTS WOOLLY GIANT RAT! Narrated by Lara Durvagich. Gmmv1980 / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0 air (petrichor). Roadside potholes are full of water. Meanwhile in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest of WA State, Mountain Beaver is tidying up its extensive burrow system. For camouflage, Mountain Beaver snips sword fern fronds, climbs into a hole and pulls fronds over the hole. Beaver pauses for a big scratch... Mountain Beaver is the host for the world's largest flea, Hystrichopsylla schefferi! While scratching, #MMMagic translocates Mountain Beaver… Chacoan Peccary (4) vs. Mountain Beaver (13) Chacoan Peccary (Parachoerus wagneri, previously Catagonus) may look like a pig but it's not! Peccary (Tayassuidae) tusks grow straight up and down, while pig (Suidae) tusks curve backward. Peccary (aka Tagua or Pecarí chaqueño) weigh up to 40kg (88lbs), and have a grizzled gray-brown coat, a black stripe down her back with a white collar across her shoulders. Similarly, Mountain Beaver (Aplodontia rufa) is not a beaver but rather an ancient mammal that occurs in the Pacific Northwest USA. It belongs to its own family (Aplodontiadae) and resembles an 800g (1.8lbs) oblong loaf of bread with stout legs and a short tail. Mt Rainier National Park / Wikimedia Commons / CC 1.0 into a roadside puddle Peccary is bathing in! Bathing Chacoan Peccary reclines in the muddy puddle, hair standing on end, and "moving the body rapidly in a squirming motion to cover itself with mud and water" completely unaware of the Mountain Beaver's arrival (Smith 2019). ‘Drops The combatants will meet in the Paraguayan chaco thorn forest, home habitat for adult female combatant Chacoan Peccary. Warm and sunny, there’s a delightful aroma after a heavy rain is in the March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 30 of water being cast up into the air by the motion’ of the Peccary, giving a lovely rainbow effect in the air (Smith 2019). Beaver is rolled under in the muddy waves created by the Peccary! Surfacing, Mountain Beaver lets out a high-pitched squeal in frustration, but is pushed under and away by the Peccary’s next wave to the edge of the puddle! With long, strong and sharp claws, Mountain Beaver grasps the muddy soil at the edge of the puddle, hoists itself out of the water and scurries to a nearby culvert, abandoning the field of battle! CHACOAN PECCARY TAKES MOUNTAIN BEAVER TO THE CLEANERS! Narrated by Tara Chestnut. he has a stretch before he trots off through the tall grass toward the edge of a stream where small mammal prey are more abundant. Meanwhile, near Chicago in the Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie, Muskrat is busy doing spring cleaning chores, pushing ice away from his doorway and re-mudding holes in his walls. Choring is never done when you live along a stream bank during spring melt. Upstream, an ice dam breaks, rushing water sweeps Muskrat off his feet and through the #MMMagic translocation portal to the Peruvian grassland landing gently in a large patch of pampas grass. Maned Wolf (5) vs. Common Muskrat (12) Maned Wolf (Chrysocyon brachyurus) is related to dogs, foxes and jackals, but is not actually a wolf! The canid is has a shaggy golden-red coat and long, looooooong legs. Maned wolf is 36 inches (90cm) at the shoulder and weighs 50 lbs (23kg). Muskrat (Ondatra zibethicus) is a chunky uniform brown 4 lb (1.8kg) rodent, with a large, blunt head, small eyes, and short, rounded ears that barely protrude from the fur. It has partially webbed hind feet. The nearly hairless tail is almost as long as the whole body of the Muskrat. D. Gordon E. Robertson / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0 Muskrat immediately begins searching for a new burrow site, haphazardly dashing about to explore the new habitat. Maned Wolf hears rustling in the grass and pauses, staring intently while directing his ears toward the sound. Based the size of the movements, could this be a hairy armadillo? JACKPOT! Armadillos only represent 4.5% of occurrence in Maned Wolf diet but 28% of biomass. Maned Wolf crouches down in the grass then quietly belly crawls toward the scurrying sound. Maned Wolf pauses. As ears triangulate the Muskrat's movements, a stream of drool drips from the corners of his mouth. Maned Wolf taps his front foot to scare Muskrat into moving and POUNCES!! The combatants meet at dusk in Pampas del Heath, the only tropical humid savannah in Peru, where a small population of maned wolf persists. Maned Wolf stirs awake from a nap. Feeling a hunger pang, Muskrat, pinned under Maned Wolf's front paws, struggles!! "A cornered muskrat is a notoriously desperate fighter" (Errington 1939). Rufus 45 / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0 March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 31 R1: THE ONLY ONES Muskrat's sharp front claws tear out and the rodent chomps his strong jaw sinking his teeth INTO GRASS AND DIRT! Smooshed face-down in the pampas grass, the Muskrat can not fully deploy anti-predator defenses! Maned Wolf expertly snap-grasps Muskrat by the neck, swings the now chittering rodent upward and Maned Wolf’s quick head shake SNAPS Muskrat’s spine. The old 1939 description of Muskrat hits differently after the encounter with Maned Wolf..."doubtless true that their wandering may be so haphazard, and their routes beset by so many dangers that they may never again encounter their own kind" (Errington 1939). MANED WOLF EATS COMMON MUSKRAT! Narrated by Tara Chestnut. Indri (6) vs. Hispid Hare (11) At 21lb (~43 stoats) and 35in long (with a *purrfect* 2in tail) the Indri (Indri indri), or Babakota in the native Malagasy language, is the largest living lemur species. Fur colors can vary white, black, gray, brown, but all Indris have tufted black ears and long legs. The rare and elusive Hispid Hare (Caprolagus hispidus), also known as a "bristly rabbit", is 20in long and weighs 5.5lb (~11 stoats). It has brown fur, short and stout hind legs, and relatively short ears. Christophe Germain / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0 the 10-foot-tall elephant grass he uses for both food and shelter. A SHADOW PASSES ABOVE! THUNK! Indri jumps from a tree 30 feet away, landing in a single leap on the tree nearest Hispid Hare. Indri uses her strong webbed toes and a large opposable big toe to cling to the trunk. Indri sings the song of her species, duetting with her mate. One of the few singing primates, Indri songs echo up to a mile and tell neighboring Indris to stay off their lawn! Hispid Hare dashes away from the scene of battle, leaving only a tiny lingering cloud of forest dust. INDRI SPOOKS HISPID HARE! Narrated by Lara Durgavich. In the Maromizaha Forest in eastern Madagascar, in the low to mid-altitude coastal rainforest habitats, the Indri calls home. Indri is currently foraging for young leaves, a preferred food source. Meanwhile, in the tall grasslands of the southern Himalayan foothills, the nocturnal Hispid Hare is crouched among the thatch, sleeping. Unlike many rabbits, Hispid Hares are not known to construct burrows. Asleep, Hispid Hare is unaware of #MMMagic translocation to Madagascar. Upon arrival, the forest cacophony of... bird calls disturb the snoozing lagomorph. Hispid Hare stays still in the new, unfamiliar forest habitat that is very different from March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 32 Marsh Mongoose (7) vs. Quokka (10) Weighing in at 4.1kg (~19 stoats), the Marsh Mongoose (Atilax paludinosus) is one of the most aquatic members of the family Herpestidae! They have a thick undercoat beneath their blackish-brownish fur to help them stay dry. Aptly, they are often called the "water mongoose". The Quokka (Setonix brachyurus) is similarly sized (although rounder!) at 4.2kg (~19 stoats). Quokka has a small, stocky body and large, well-developed hind legs like fellow members of the family Macropodidae (think: very small kangaroo). Its fur is a fluffy buff color. #StoatsAsMeasurement hoping it could be one of his prey fish but encounters Quokka. The Quokka doesn't seem like a predator, but this mesocarnivore has a side of cautious with his curious. Jacob Dirsuwei / iNaturalist / CC BY-NC 4.0 Quokka peers out into the thick, twisty forests of KwaZulu-Natal which are different from the pine, wattle and tea tree woodland she calls home. She spots the Marsh Mongoose watching her. Marsh Mongoose looks a bit like a quoll, the marsupial carnivore that can hunt Quokka, but long isolated from mainland predators, Rottnest Island Quokka has "prey naivety" and doesn't recognize Marsh Mongoose as a danger! Marsh Mongoose stares at Quokka. Quokka "smile" stares at Marsh Mongoose. Marsh Mongoose spots a favored fish and dashes into the water for the familiar prey, possessively carrying the scaly dinner away to eat nearer one of his many burrows. OFF THE FIELD OF BATTLE! QUOKKA OUTLASTS MARSH MONGOOSE! Narrated by Gretchen Andreasen. xiSerge / Pixabay Marsh Mongoose is patrolling his territory along the Great Fish River riverbank in the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa. As he patrols, he uses long, unwebbed fingers to search for crabs, snails, and toads. Meanwhile, on Rottnest Island of SW Australia, Quokka is surrounded by her family group of about 20 members. It's the last month of summer down under, and this nocturnal animal is trying to rest and stay cool under a native skunk tree. #MMMagic translocation delivers Quokka into shallow waters next to a branch of the Great Fish River, she drinks deeply of opportunistic water and then Quokka slosh-hops onto dry land. Marsh Mongoose hears the sloshing and investigates-- MMMagazine by Katie Hinde, Margaret Janz, Melanie Beasley, & William Yates March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 33 R1: THE ONLY ONES Spotted-necked Otter (8) vs. Tayra (9) Sleek & slender, the Spotted-necked Otter (Hydrictis maculicollis, previously Lutra) has brown and white splotching on their throat and upper chest, with the rest of their coat various browns from reddish to chocolate. About the size of a medium-small dog, the Tayra (Eira barbara) is a long-legged, long-necked weasel with a robust head and bushy tail. Tayra has a brown body, with a lighter color on its head, and a diamond-shaped patch on its throat. twig snaps on the forest floor beneath the hoof of a young, grey brocket deer directly below Tayra's branch on the tree. Tayra stealthily positions to ambush attack the brocket deer... and DROPS... In KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, Spotted-necked Otter naps, curled into an adorable ball, resting peacefully in a hole between two large tree roots at the base of a tree alongside the river home of his social group. Otter's grumbly tumbly awakens him for another round of fishing. Otter emerges from the hole, spin-twist-stretching. At the base of the tree, Otter rolls onto his back, in the dappled sunshine below the branched tree canopy, reaching his toes above him, splaying out his fully webbed feet, tipped with sharp, half-inch claws. André Azevedo Praude / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0 right through the #MMMagic transportal… TAYRA LANDS DIRECTLY ONTO SPOTTED-NECKED OTTER! Both mustelids are now unintentionally in a deadly battle as Otter and Tayra immediately attack the other! Normally such near-evenly matched mustelids would avoid a battle- too much risk of serious injury! Indeed, otters are adapted to avoid competition by fishing waterways not typically used by other mustelids in their environments. Spotted-necked Otter has an extra 3lbs in body weight and 2 inches in body length on the Tayra! Spotted-necked Otter bites down on Tayra's shoulder, thickly muscled from climbing trees. Tayra bites down on Spotted-necked Otter's shoulder, strong from holding down big fish for flesh-ripping bite-eating! derekkeats / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 2.0 Meanwhile, in Brazil, Tayra, most active in daytime, prowls the forest canopy for fruit and prey in Lauraceas State Park in this Atlantic forest biodiversity hotspot. Tayra will readily attack vulnerable sloths or monkeys to slake his hunger. A March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 34 LOCKED IN, TOOTH AND CLAW, TORSO-TWISTING OTTER ROLLS WITH TAYRA INTO THE RIVER! Underwater, Otter bites Tayra's back feet! TAYRA'S FRONT LEGS CONNECT WITH A TREE ROOT OF THE TANGLED BANK and TAYRA HAULS OUT OF THE WATER!!! TAYRA flees into the forest, far from his mustelid foe so well-adapted for an aquatic encounter. SPOTTED-NECKED OTTER DEFEATS TAYRA! Narrated by Katie Hinde. TAYRA SLAPS OUT WITH ONLY PARTIALLY WEBBED TOES SO MUCH BETTER ADAPTED TO LAND & TREE! Panicked, Tayra's relatively long legs reach, reach, reach, slipping in the silty, slippery mud at river's edge! March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 35 CITATIONS Indri vs. Hispid Hare Puma vs. Star-nosed Mole continued Abedin, I., Mukherjee, T., Kim, A. R., Kim, H. W., Kang, H. E., & Kundu, S. (2024). Distribution model reveals rapid decline in habitat extent for endangered hispid hare: implications for wildlife management and conservation planning in future climate change scenarios. Biology, 13(3), 198. Riley, S. P. D., Sikich, J. A., & Benson, J. F. (2021). 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Kingdon, J., Butynski, T. M., Kalina, J., Pokora, T., Happold, D. C. D., Happold, M., & Hoffmann, M. (2013). Mammals of Africa (pp. 298–301). Bloomsbury. Mayer, J. J., & Wetzel, R. M. (1986). Catagonus wagneri. Mammalian Species, (259), 1-5. Nocon, W. 1999. "Atilax paludinosus" (On-line), Animal Diversity Web. Accessed January 29, 2025 at https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Atilax_paludinosus/ Smith P. 2019. An observation of water-bathing in Chaco Peccary. Suiform Soundings 18(1): 7-8. Poole, H. L., Mukaromah, L., Kobryn, H. T., & Fleming, P. A. (2014). Spatial analysis of limiting resources on an island: diet and shelter use reveal sites of conservation importance for the Rottnest Island quokka. Wildlife Research, 41(6), 510. https://doi.org/10.1071/wr14083 Puma vs. Star-nosed Mole Catania, K. C., & Remple, F. E. (2005). Asymptotic prey profitability drives star-nosed moles to the foraging speed limit. Nature, 433(7025), 519–522. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature03250 Ray, J. C., & Sunquist, M. E. (2001). Trophic relations in a community of African rainforest carnivores. Oecologia, 127(3), 395–408. https://doi.org/10.1007/s004420000604 Gay, S. W., & Best, T. L. (1996). Relationships between abiotic variables and geographic variation in skulls of pumas (Puma concolor: Mammalia, Felidae) in North and South America. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 117(3), 259–282. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1096-3642.1996.tb02190.x Waaleboer, J. M., Van der Weyde, L. K., & Moseby, K. E. (2024). Rapid change in anti‐predator behaviour of a threatened marsupial after thousands of years of isolation from predators. Austral Ecology, 49(2), e13484. March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 36 CITATIONS Spotted-Necked Otter vs. Tayra Addax vs. Grant's Golden Mole Bonesi, L., Chanin, P., & Macdonald, D. W. (2004). Competition between Eurasian otter Lutra lutra and American mink Mustela vison probed by niche shift. Oikos, 106(1), 19-26. Altan, B. 2000. "Addax nasomaculatus" (On-line), Animal Diversity Web. Accessed January 20, 2025 at https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Addax_nasomaculatus/ Grotta‐Neto, F., Mello, M. C., Mello, R. C., Bernardi, I. P., Carrano, E., & Passos, F. C. (2021). The role of tayra (Eira barbara) as predator of medium and large‐sized mammals. Austral Ecology, 46(2), 329-333. IUCN SSC Antelope Specialist Group. 2016. Addax nasomaculatus. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2016: e.T512A50180603. https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-2.RLTS.T512A50 180603.en. Accessed on 20 January 2025. Larivière, S. (2002). Lutra maculicollis. Mammalian species, 2002(712), 1-6. Krausman, P. R., & Casey, A. L. (2007). Addax nasomaculatus. Mammalian Species, 2007(807), 1-4. Powell, R. A., & Zielinski, W. J. (1983). Competition and coexistence in mustelid communities. Acta Zoology Fennica 174: 223-227. Mason, M. J., & Narins, P. M. (2002). Seismic sensitivity in the desert golden mole (Eremitalpa granti): a review. Journal of Comparative Psychology, 116(2), 158. Presley, S. J. (2000). Eira barbara. Mammalian species, 2000(636), 1-6. Perrin, M. R., & Fielden, L. J. (1999). Eremitalpa granti. Mammalian species, (629), 1-4. Schreffler, C. 2003. "Eira barbara" (On-line), Animal Diversity Web. Accessed January 26, 2025 at https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Eira_barbara/ Roth, J. 2004. "Eremitalpa granti" (On-line), Animal Diversity Web. Accessed January 20, 2025 at https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Eremitalpa_granti/ Soderman, S. 2000. ""Hydrictis maculicollis"" (On-line), Animal Diversity Web. Accessed January 26, 2025 at https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Hydrictis_maculicollis/ Stabach, J. A., Rabeil, T., Turmine, V., Wacher, T., Mueller, T., & Leimgruber, P. (2017). On the brink of extinction—habitat selection of addax and dorcas gazelle across the Tin Toumma desert, Niger. Diversity and Distributions, 23(6), 581-591. Villafañe-Trujillo, Á. J., Kolowski, J. M., Cove, M. V., Medici, E. P., Harmsen, B. J., Foster, R. J., ... & López-González, C. A. (2021). Activity patterns of tayra (Eira barbara) across their distribution. Journal of Mammalogy, 102(3), 772-788. Saiga vs. Woolly Rat Bekenov, A. B., Grachev, I. A., & Milner‐Gulland, E. J. (1998). The ecology and management of the saiga antelope in Kazakhstan. Mammal Review, 28(1), 1-52. Bezerra, A. M., & Pardiñas, U. F. (2016). Kunsia tomentosus (Rodentia: Cricetidae). Mammalian Species, 48(930), 1-9. Bezerra, A.M.R., Carmignotto, A.P., Nunes, A.P., & Rodrigues, F.H.G. (2007). New data on the distribution, natural history and morphology of Kunsia tomentosus (Lichtenstein, 1830)(Rodentia: Cricetidae: Sigmodontinae). Zootaxa, 1505, 1-18. Serikbayeva, A. T., Akimzhanov, D. S., Iskakova, Z. A., Karagoishin, Z., Akoyev, M. T., Dauletaliyev, T. N., & Baitanayev, O. A. (2023). Saiga (Saiga tatarica) conservation strategy in Kazakhstan. Brazilian Journal of Biology, 83, e275397. March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 37 CITATIONS Maned wolf vs. Muskrat Maned wolf vs. Muskra continuedt de Arruda Bueno, A. & Motta-Junior, J. C. (2009) Feeding habits of the maned wolf, Chrysocyon brachyurus (Carnivora: Canidae), in southeast Brazil, Studies on Neotropical Fauna and Environment, 44:2, 67-75, DOI: 10.1080/01650520902891413 Rodrigues, F. H., Hass, A., Lacerda, A. C., Grando, R. L., Bagno, M. A., Bezerra, A. M., & Silva, W. R. (2007). Feeding habits of the maned wolf (Chrysocyon brachyurus) in the Brazilian Cerrado. Mastozoología Neotropical, 14(1), 37-51. Dietz, J. M. (1985). Chrysocyon brachyurus. Mammalian species, (234), 1-4. Williams, R. S. R., Torres, E., Magan, J., Cruz, A. and Leite Pitman, R. 2012. Continued presence of the maned wolf in Peru. Canid News. IUCN/SSC Canid Specialist Group. ISSN 1478-2677 [online] URL: http://www.canids.org/canidnews/15/Maned_wolf_in_Peru.pdf. Errington, P. L. (1939). Reaction of muskrat populations to drought. Ecology, 20(2), 168-186. Motta-Júnior, J. C., & Martins, K. (2002). The frugivorous diet of the maned wolf, Chrysocyon brachyurus, in Brazil: ecology and conservation. In Seed dispersal and frugivory: ecology, evolution and conservation. Third International Symposium-Workshop on Frugivores and Seed Dispersal, São Pedro, Brazil, 6-11 August 2000 (pp. 291-303). Wallingford UK: CABI publishing. Willner, G. R., Feldhamer, G. A., Zueker, E. E., & Chapman, J. A. (1980). Ondatra zibethicus. Mammalian species, (141), 1-8. March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 38 GENETICS SPOTLIGHT Why are these two closely related canids so drastically different? This extreme divergence between closely related species highlights how organisms adapt to their environments and how evolution shapes morphology and behavior in fascinating ways. For instance, while the bush dog’s adaptations facilitate burrowing for hunting and denning, the Maned Wolf’s long legs help it navigate the tall grasslands of the Cerrado (a savanna-like biome in central South America). The Maned Wolf is the only large-bodied canid in South America that survived the Late Pleistocene megafaunal extinctions, possibly due to its ability to exploit a wide range of food sources. Image by Kev via Pixabay The Maned Wolf belongs to a lineage of canids separate from wolves and foxes. The Maned Wolf’s diet is particularly unique. Only about 50% of its diet consists of animals. The other half of the Maned Wolf’s diet is made up of various plant foods, including the tomato-like fruit called lobeira or translated to English “wolf apple”. These fruits contain complex sugars that many other mammals cannot digest on their own. Luckily, the maned wolf possesses key physiological adaptations to digest fibers of lobeira. Their closest living relative, the bush dog (Speothos venaticus), last shared a common ancestor ~3 Million years ago. Maned wolf and bush dog have very different body shapes and many different behaviors. Bush dogs are “hypercarnivorous” who must eat meat; pack-hunting prey while running on very short, stocky legs with long, strong bodies. Fellow genetics TeaMMMember Prof. Ellie Armstrong (UC Riverside) and I are working towards assembling the first chromosome-level reference genomes from two maned wolves – Anaheim and Luigi, at the Pueblo Zoo in Colorado. A fundamental aspect of evolutionary genetics and conservation biology research involves constructing a reference genome for the target species. A reference genome functions as a coordinate system for mapping genetic data to chromosomes, allowing for more accurate comparisons of genetic variation across individuals and species. By creating these reference genome assemblies, we seek to contribute to the study of the evolution of this species and conservation strategies of canids in South America. by Prof. Eduardo Amorim, CSU Northridge Castelló JR. 2018. Canids of the World: Wolves, Wild Dogs, Foxes, Jackals, Coyotes, and Their Relatives. Princeton University Press. Chavez et al. 2022. Comparative genomics uncovers the evolutionary history, demography, and molecular adaptations of South American canids. PNAS. 119:e2205986119. Lindblad-Toh et al. 2005. Genome sequence, comparative analysis and haplotype structure of the domestic dog. Nature 438: 803–819. Smithsonian's National Zoo & Conservation Biology Inst Maned Wolf. Bush Dog by Vassil / Wikimedia Commons / CC 1.0 March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 39 COMBATANT ARTWORK Olivia Pellicer! ko-fi.com/opellisms www.opellisms.com Valeria Pellicer! ko-fi.com/veppart www.vpellicerart.com Charon Henning! ko-fi.com/oddangel www.charonhenning.com Mary Casillas Freisner! ko-fi.com/marycasillas marycasillas.wix.com/paintings March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 40 Bluesky Banter March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 41 CURRENT BRACKET March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 42 13 March 2025 If you’re learning, you’re winning! Since 2013 all and can live for hundreds of years. Mycorrhizal Fungus (Rhizophagus aggregatum, previously Glomus aggregatum) is a pear-shaped microscopic fungus, pastel yellow to yellowish brown and typically develops a single projecting "hypha" that releases substances and absorbs nutrients. A single spore is 40-85 micrometers in diameter. There are 1,000,000 micrometers/meter, so Ginkgo is the height of 38 MILLION spores of this mycorrhizal fungus we'll call Rhizo. Roots & Relicts are species that have endured mostly unchanged for MILLIONS of years or groups that were once widespread but now survive in small remnant populations. And tonight we will learn about amazing organisms! Ginkgo stands in a warm temperate broadleaf forest on Mt. Jinfo in SW China. Surviving mass extinctions and escaping the glaciers of the Pleistocene, Ginkgo is the last descendent of ancestors dating to the Jurassic. Among the 5 main groups of living seed plants, there are hundreds of cycads, conifers, and gnetales species and 500,000+ species of angiosperms, but only one ginkgophyte remains. Nearly unchanged for 200+ million years, Ginkgo is Ginkgo (1) vs. Mycorrhizal Fungus (16) Ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba) bark varies from light grey to greyish brown and has two lobed, pale green leaves (bi-loba) that are often depicted in artwork. This tree routinely reaches 80-120 feet March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 43 R1: ROOTS & RELICTS the sole survivor of ginkgophyta. In the moist, deep, sandy soils, the substrate of root secretions and soil microorganisms (the Rhizosphere!) something already lurks in the Ginkgo's typical taproot system. Already within the cells of the roots of the Ginkgo… it’s Rhizo!, the SYMBIOTIC arbuscular mycorrhiza fungi Rhizophagus aggregatum! Mycorrhiza "benefit host plants by enhancing water and nutrient uptake and by increasing host resistance to pathogens and other stressors" while gaining carbon from the host plant (Fernández et al. 2022). Basking in sunshine, Ginkgo photosynthesizes, sharing carbon with its littlest fungi friend Rhizo. #TeamworkMakesTheDreamWork GINKGO AND RHIZO TOGETHER ADVANCE TO ROUND 2! Narrated by Katie Hinde. Greg Hume / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0 habitat. Cyanobacteria is afloat in the Pacific Gyre when a large shipping container passes, creating a mist that sends Cyanobacteria airborne. #MMMagic translocates airborne Cyanobacteria to Texas, settling on the slightly rippling water surface. SPLASHHHHHH! WHAAM! Ambush attack! Alligator Gar strikes a swimming snake with lethal accuracy, propelling both Gar and snake to the surface of the water. Alligator Gar and snake send water droplets skyward, including Cyanobacteria as an aerosol particle caught in the spring breeze and flown from the field of battle! GAR LAUNCHES CYANOBACTERIA! Narrated by Tara Chestnut. Alligator Gar (2) vs. Cyanobacteria (15) Alligator Gar (Atractosteus spatula) "belong to an ancient lineage of fish dating back over 200 million years" in the Age of Dinosaurs (David et al. 2018). With a thick armor of grey-green scales and a long toothy snout, Gar looks very prehistoric. There are 4 types of Cyanobacteria (Prochlorococcus spp.), two of which can synthesize atmospheric nitrogen. Combatant Prochlorococcus is not one of them. Its strength is being so tiny and resourceful that it is the dominant oxygen-producing plankton in nutrient poor areas of the ocean. Cyanobacteria make their own food, like plants, with light! And a by-product is oxygen. These microorganism masters ruled for at least the first 3.0-3.5 billion years of the Earth’s history and are responsible for our oxygen rich atmosphere. Frilled Shark (3) vs. Fern (14) Clocking in at 6.6ft (5.92 stoats) in length, the Frilled Shark (Chlamydoselachus anguineus) is an eel-like shark found near the ocean floor in the Atlantic and Pacific, named for its six pairs of wavy gill slits. This Shark's most striking feature is its curved, needle-sharp teeth (300 in total!). Behold, the humble Fern (Claytosmunda claytoniana)! In particular, our combatant is the Interrupted Fern, found in Eastern North America and Eastern Asia. A true relic, some of this species’ closest relatives were alive in the Triassic, ~237 million years ago! The Interrupted Fern gets its name from the structure of their Our Alligator Gar combatant is a 68 year old queen weighing 350 lbs (159kg). In springtime, the waters of Trinity River, Texas begin to warm and soon she will migrate from the river estuary toward river areas with her preferred off-channel spawning March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 44 Detecting a change in the movement of the water with sensory cells along her body (her lateral line), Frilled Shark swims in her long, eel-like body. The Frilled Shark body plan is inherited from ancestors arising 350 million years ago in the Carboniferous and why this species is considered a 'living fossil'. Frilled Shark, mouth wide to catch prey whole, swims into the Fern's wiry roots that get thoroughly caught in Frilled Sharks multi-row teeth as “each tooth consists of three backwardly directed briar-like fangs" (Gudger 1937). Swimming forward, Frilled Shark thrashes her eel-like body and whipping her head against the fern, dragging the fern with force in the ocean water. Frilled Sharks violent thrashing creates turbulence, chaotic changes in pressure and flow against the plant until Frilled Shark RIPS Fern into disintegrating pieces! With a final thrash of her head, Frilled Shark breaks free, between two fern chunks drifting slowly toward the midnight realm of the ocean and off the field of battle. FRILLED SHARK SHREDS FERN! Narrated by Erin Rowland-Schaefer. Citron / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0 blades. In the middle of each blade is a section of dark-colored leaf structures that are used for reproduction. When they dry up and fall off, they leave an "interrupted" gap behind. Our combatants meet in battle in Suruga Bay, Japan. Frilled Shark is rising from the depths toward the surface to follow the daily movements of squid, which makes up about 60% of her diet. Meanwhile, in the Minnesota forest, Interrupted Fern shifts in the spring breeze. Fern's deep root system holds it steady. Interrupted Ferns grow large rhizomes, a modified stem that expands underground into a system of rootin' and shootin' goodness, allowing fern clones to pop-up nearby. Suddenly #MMMagic translocates Interrupted Fern UNDERWATER at the border of the twilight and sunlight realms of Surgura Bay. Coelacanth (4) vs Mudskipper (13) Coelacanth (Latimeria chalumnae) is a BIG FISH, 2m long and 100kg with muscular, fleshy, and paired shoulder (pectoral) and hip (pelvic) fins, like our arms and legs (but she doesn't walk). Coelacanth also has a nonfunctional (vestigial) lung that does not breathe air. Mudskipper (Periophthalmodon schlosseri) is a SMALL FISH, < 0.3m long with large front (pectoral) fins. Mudskippers spend time in the water and on land (amphibious) and they can BREATHE AIR. But Mudskippers don't use lungs to breathe when on land; they absorb oxygen through their skin and mouth lining. Coelacanth is active at night (nocturnal) exploring the waters near Grande Comore Island off the eastern coast of Africa in the Indian Ocean. Nighttime is feeding time and Coelacanth is hungry. Meanwhile, it's low tide in the mangrove forests along the Gigis River in Malaysia. Ayotte, Gilles / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0 March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 45 R1: ROOTS & RELICTS Bernard Dupont / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0 wrecklessmarine / iNaturalist / CC BY-NC 4.0 Mudskipper is mending her burrow, spitting a wad of mud out into the mudflat. She dives down into the shallow pool to retrieve more mud. But Mudskipper never reaches her burrow! Instead, she's transported to the home field of Coelacanth, 400 m below the water's surface off the coast of Grand Comore. than normal. Mudskipper frantically flaps her large pectoral fins, trying to find the light of the surface. Coelacanth continues to drift towards Mudskipper. Mudskipper's frantic fin flapping suddenly slows. Mudskipper is highly adapted to terrestrial life; her gills are not suitable for full-time aquatic respiration. She's not getting enough oxygen! Coelacanth continues slowly drifting closer and closer. Mudskipper is unable to move, watching the big fish approach. Mudskipper twitches a pectoral fin and Coelacanth strikes with a rapid movement of her jaws, blink and you miss it, swallowing Mudskipper whole! COELACANTH INGESTS MUDSKIPPER! Narrated by Jessica Light. Mudskipper is fully submerged in cold, deep water, with the surface nowhere in sight. Coelacanth propels herself forward using her fins, then she glides. She prefers these deep depths where prey can be abundant. Coelacanth slowly drifts toward Mudskipper. Mudskipper's maximum water depth is usually around 2m; she's in much deeper water March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 46 hauled out in his snow lair. Since the lake began to freeze in December, Ringed Seal has used the sharp claws of his front flipper to carve and maintain a breathing and access hole into the lake water through the ice. As snow drifts formed, growing deepest in February and March, Ringed Seal dug and excavated his winter lair with snow providing insulation and defense from wind, along with the blubber that is half his winter body mass. Meanwhile in Slovenia, an apex predatorTHE OLM- hunts bugs and fishes in the "subterranean, freshwater lakes and streams of limestone caves in the Dinaric Alps" (Meaton 2011). In this Stygian realm, the Olm relies on hearing, scent, and taste to hunt prey and "unidentified receptors to orientate in Earth’s magnetic field" to navigate aquatic and terrestrial cave systems descending hundreds of feet (Zakšek et al. 2023). Linda Lötjönen / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY 4.0 Ringed Seal (5) vs. Olm (12) The Ringed Seal (Pusa hispida saimensis) is a medium sized pinniped, which at its largest can be ~5.5feet long and ~270lbs. They have short heads, cat-like snoots, and their bellies have silver fur, with silver rings on the darker fur of their sides and back. The Olm (Proteus anguinus) is an amphibian with a long eel-like body, skin covered eyes that can't see but can detect light, with lifespans similar to humans. They reach adulthood around 15 years of age and live 70-100 years. Females are larger than males. Olm is MMMagically translocated to the snow lair, ripped from the aquatic environment where the Olm breathes with gills and skin, the Olm seems to be air gulping for her internal lungs to breathe. Olm smells and hears the nearby lake waters and scramble slithers RIGHT PAST THE SEAL'S FACE. Olm has no known predators in her home habitat and is unaware of the dangers at the exhale of fishy breath in the darkness of the snow lair. Ringed Seal's teeth snap onto Olm's torso and tosses Olm back to be swallowed whole! But the writhing Olm is THREE TIMES BIGGER than the smelt and perch Ringed Seal normally swallows whole! Ringed Seal hock-a-loogies the Olm through the hole in the ice INTO THE 42 DEGREES FARENHEIT LAKE WATERS! Lake Saimaa is within the water temperature of Olm's home cave system, catching her breath, Olm swims away from the field of battle. RINGED SEAL DEFEATS OLM! Narrated by Katie Hinde. Arne Hodalič / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0 The combatants meet at Lake Saimaa, Finland, where a population of freshwater ringed seals became landlocked since the last glacial period and has been isolated for 9500 years. Ringed Seal is MMMagazine by Katie Hinde, Margaret Janz, Melanie Beasley, & William Yates March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 47 R1: ROOTS & RELICTS Starry Sturgeon (6) vs. Tuatara (11) Clocking in at a whopping 180lbs (364 stoats) and 7.2feet (6.5 stoats) long, the Starry Sturgeon (Acipenser stellatus) is a real aquatic heavyweight. Maxing out at 29 years old, these fish are also older and wiser, making for a powerful combatant. Sturgeons as a group are known for their elongated snoots (formally "rostra"). They contain electroreceptors, which allow them to sense electric fields in the water! Like their cousins the paddlefish, Sturgeon use these electroreceptors to tell when dinner is nearby! Sid Mosdell / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0 nocturnal hunting. After a summer of hunting seabird eggs and nestlings, in the austral autumn Tuatara's meals are primarily bugs and other invertebrates. All of a sudden #MMMagic translocates Tuatara to the chilly waters of the Danube River but Tuatara is cold tolerant and can swim in waters down to 41F! Zsoldos Márton / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0 Don't be deceived! Even though Tuatara (Sphenodon punctatus) look like lizards, they are in fact the only living member of the order Rhynchocephalia, which means "beak head"! The name Tuatara comes from a Māori word meaning "peaks or spikes on the back." This reptile tips the scales at 2.2 lbs (4.5 stoats). Starry Sturgeon swims closer... closer... closer... to the Tuatara. Starry Sturgeon swims right up to Tuatara and then submerges to the riverbed. Starry Sturgeon don't feed during their spring migration! OH NO... a drift bottom gillnet has captured the CRITICALLY ENDANGERED Starry Sturgeon as illegal poachers seek a criminal payday for her eggs aka CAVIAR!!! Recently, tests have been developed to tell apart the eggs of different sturgeon species to assist in stopping the illegal trade of endangered sturgeon caviar, but that deterrent isn't enough to stop these opportunistic poachers. TUATARA OUTLASTS STURGEON!! Narrated by Erin Rowland-Schaefer. The combatants battle it out in Eastern Europe. In winter Starry Sturgeon lurked along the bed of the Black Sea, chowing down on fish, worms, and crustaceans detected with her whisker-like sensory organ (barbels). Without teeth, she suctions prey into her large, bottom-facing mouths. But Starry Sturgeon is abandoning the Black Sea, as she is laden with eggs. She swims against the current of the Danube River delta, heading upriver for the spring spawning! Meanwhile, on Stephens Island in New Zealand, the morning dawn ends Tuatara's March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 48 Asian Forest Tortoise (8) vs.Platypus (9): The Asian Forest Tortoise (Manouria emys), also called the Brown Tortoise, is the largest tortoise inhabiting Asia, with a shades of brown to black shell varying slightly among individuals and more between geographic regions.The Tortoise can live to 150 years old. The genus Manouria are "the most ‘basal’ extant tortoises, with a strong association to aquatic environments" (Natchev et al. 2015) In March, Platypus has little use for his spurs. His crural gland that makes venom is currently shrunken, but will enlarge for mating season and male-male combat in August and September. Back in Borneo, the forest canopy is dense. With little sunlight reaching the forest floor, Forest Tortoise stands up on his back legs -nearly vertical- to reach the lowest leaves of a flowering plant in the elephant ear genus Alocasia. Forest Tortoise stretches her face forward to grasp the last leaves with her jaw, more like an aquatic turtle, instead of using her tongue to help grasp her food item as more terrestrially-adapted tortoises do. As a small brown aquatic mammal, "The platypus gives the appearance of several animals combined into one" with a bill like a duck, a body like a groundhog, webbed feet like an otter, and the tail of a beaver. (Pasitschniak-Arts & Marinelli 1998). Duckbill platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus) are one of the few monotremes, an ancient lineage of mammals that still lay eggs like the ancestors of marsupials and placental (Eutherian) mammals. Monotremes get their name 'one hole' because they lay eggs, pee, and poop through the same plumbing. #MMMagic translocates Platypus to the thick shrubbery beside Forest Tortoise, but on the side furthest from the stream that seems less daunting than this new forest! Forest Tortoise is not interested in eating any of the stems or branches and begins to drop her massive 50lb body back down to all four legs... #ImYellingTimber. The 3-pound Platypus is trotting on squat legs to the stream and rushes directly under Forest Tortoise. Today the long monsoon season is winding down in the Tabin Wildlife Reserve in Malaysian Borneo. Forest Tortoise forages close to a nearby stream. Meanwhile, in a stream flowing into Lake St. Clair, Tasmania, a male Platypus is hunting freshwater shrimp and other invertebrates with his eyes, ears, and nostrils closed, hunting by detecting the electrical signals and movements of prey! (These are known as electroreception and mechanoreception respectively). Platypus dives into the stream and swims away just before Tortoise's crushing body hits the forest debris on the forest floor. TORTOISE OUTLASTS PLATYPUS! Narrated by Katie Hinde. Charles J. Sharp / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0 Rushenb / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0 March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 49 R1: ROOTS & RELICTS H. Zell / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0 Great White Pelican (7) vs. Horseshoe Crab (10) morsels into her mouth, which is situated in the middle of her legs, when #MMMagic translocates Horseshoe Crab to shallowest muddy waters in the intertidal zone of Pelican’s colony. Horseshoe Crab arrives UPSIDE DOWN, her armor in mud and her vulnerable undersides skyward! In this corner we have a 33 lb (15kg) male Pelican (Pelecanus onocrotalus) who is buffy white with black flight feathers and a long yellow bill that has a flappy gular pouch on the lower bill. Pelicans have massive beaks and fishing techniques that arose over 30 million years ago and were identical to living pelicans in the early Oligocene. In this corner we have Horseshoe Crab (Limulus polyphemus) #NotReallyACrab, the 11 lb (4.8kg) female is olive in color with a smooth upper shell and undersides that are nightmare fuel. Horseshoe crabs "are the closest living relatives of the trilobites, have persisted for 200 million years" and their very similar ancestors are found in the fossil record back to half a billion years ago (Walls et al. 2002). Nearby shorebirds surround Horseshoe Crab, their beaks dart to claim eggs on her undercarriage as Horseshoe Crab slap-flips her lance-like tail (telson) to try to turn herself over. The shorebird melee attracts Pelican’s attention. Rather awkwardly, Pelican flaps his wings and kicks his short legs with large, webbed feet to take off from the surface of the water and investigate an opportunity for a scavenged meal. Horseshoe Crab successfully flips herself over with her telson and scrambles into deeper waters, sending scores of fish(~0.5lbs) scattering in silvery flashes. Pelican, large wings gliding low over the water, spots the darting silver fish exactly his preferred size and dives to scoop fish and water into his expandable, bucket-like throat pouch. Pelican lowers his massive beak scooping up water, fish and Horseshoe Crab! As Horseshoe Crab accidentally scuttles into his throat, INSTANTLY TURN THRASHING, The combatants meet in Sundarbans National Park in NE India, the world's largest area of mangrove forests, where Pelican is gathered in a breeding colony. He is signaling to females with a "a-ooogh" advertising display. Meanwhile, on the Georgia coast, Horseshoe Crab prepares for the breeding season in May. She gorges on small invertebrates that crawl and burrow on the seabed, sucking tasty March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 50 HORSESHOE CRAB'S SHARP, LANCE-LIKE TELSON IMPALES PELICAN'S POUCH! Pelican heaves out water and fish out of his pouch, violently dislodging Horseshoe Crab from his throat! Horseshoe Crab lands in the water, drifting down BUT HER TELSON WAS RIPPED FROM HER BODY AND IS STILL IMPALED IN THE PELICAN'S FLESH! IMPALED & AWKWARD, PELICAN LAUNCHES AWAY, departing the field of battle, leaving the injured Horseshoe Crab in the coastal shallows. HORSESHOE CRAB DEFEATS PELICAN! Narrated by Tara Chestnut March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 51 CITATIONS Coelecanth vs Mudskipper Forest Tortoise vs. Platypus Fricke, H., Hissmann, K. (1992) Locomotion, fin coordination and body form of the living coelacanth Latimeria chalumnae . Environ Biol Fish 34, 329–356. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00004739 England, S. J., & Robert, D. (2022). The ecology of electricity and electroreception. Biological Reviews, 97(1), 383-413. Grant, T. R., & Temple–Smith, P. D. (1998). Field biology of the platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus): historical and current perspectives. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences, 353(1372), 1081-1091. Fricke, H., Hissmann, K. (2000). Feeding ecology and evolutionary survival of the living coelacanth Latimeria chalumnae . Marine Biology 136, 379–386 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1007/s002270050697 Høybye-Mortensen, K. (2004). The tortoise Manouria emys emys: behaviour and habitat in the wild (Doctoral dissertation, Syddansk Universitet). Fricke, H., Reinicke, O., Hofer, H. et al. (1987). 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(1998), The mudskipper Periophthalmodon schlosseri respires more efficiently on land than in water and vice versa for Boleophthalmus boddaerti. J. Exp. Zool., 280: 86-90. https://doi.org/10.1002/(SICI)1097-010X(19980101)280:1<86:: AID-JEZ10>3.0.CO;2-U Virupannavar, V. 2004. "Manouria emys" (On-line), Animal Diversity Web. Accessed January 29, 2025 at https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Manouria_emys/ Hayes, A. J., & Melrose, J. (2020). Electro‐Stimulation, a Promising Therapeutic Treatment Modality for Tissue Repair: Emerging Roles of Sulfated Glycosaminoglycans as Electro‐Regulatory Mediators of Intrinsic Repair Processes. Advanced Therapeutics, 3(11), 2000151. Takeda, T., Ishimatsu, A., Oikawa, S., Kanda, T., Hishida, Y. and Khoo, K.H. (1999), Mudskipper Periophthalmodon schlosseri can repay oxygen debts in air but not in water. J. Exp. Zool., 284: 265-270. https://doi.org/10.1002/(SICI)1097-010X(19990801)284:3<265 ::AID-JEZ3>3.0.CO;2-X Frilled Shark vs. Interrupted Fern Gudger, E. W. (1937). Abnormal dentition in sharks, Selachii. Bulletin of the AMNH; v. 73, article 2. Bomfleur, B., Grimm, G. W., & McLoughlin, S. (2017) The fossil Osmundales (Royal Ferns)—a phylogenetic network analysis, revised taxonomy, and evolutionary classification of anatomically preserved trunks and rhizomes. PeerJ, 5:e3433 Garman, S. (1884). An extraordinary shark. Bulletin of the Essex Institute, 16, 47-55. Kubota, T., Shiobara, Y., & Kubodera, T., (1991) Food habits of the Frilled Shark Chlamydoselachus anguineus Collected from Suruga Bay, Central Japan, NIPPON SUISAN GAKKAISHI 57(1),15-20. March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 52 CITATIONS Starry Sturgeon vs. Tuatara Ringed Seal vs. Olm Bakhshalizadeh, S., Abdolmalaki, S., & Bani, A. (2012). Aspects of the life history of Acipenser stellatus (Acipenseriformes, Acipenseridae), the starry sturgeon, in Iranian waters of the Caspian Sea. aqua: International Journal of Ichthyology, 18(2) Auttila, M., Sinisalo, T., Valtonen, M., Niemi, M., Viljanen, M., Kurkilahti, M., & Kunnasranta, M. (2015). Diet composition and seasonal feeding patterns of a freshwater ringed seal (Pusa hispida saimensis). Marine Mammal Science, 31(1), 45-65. Boscari, E., Barmintseva, A., Pujolar, J.M., Doukakis, P., Mugue, N., & Congiu, L., (2013) Species and hybrid identification of sturgeon caviar: a new molecular approach to detect illegal trade. Molecular Ecology Resources 14(3) 489-498 Hammill, M. O. (2009). Ringed seal: Pusa hispida. In Encyclopedia of marine mammals (pp. 972-974). Academic Press. Kunnasranta, M., Niemi, M., Auttila, M., Valtonen, M., Kammonen, J., & Nyman, T. (2021). Sealed in a lake—Biology and conservation of the endangered Saimaa ringed seal: A review. 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G., & Stirling, I. (1975). The breeding habitat of the ringed seal (Phoca hispida). The birth lair and associated structures. Canadian Journal of Zoology, 53(9), 1297-1305. Tosini, G. The pineal complex of reptiles: physiological and behavioral roles. Ethology Ecology & Evolution 9: 313-333 U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. 2021. Stellate Sturgeon (Acipenser stellatus) Ecological Risk Screening Summary. www.fws.gov/sites/default/files/documents/Ecological-Risk-Scr eening-Summary-Stellate-sturgeon_0.pdf Spicer, R. 2013. "Pusa hispida" (On-line), Animal Diversity Web. Accessed January 22, 2025 at https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Pusa_hispida/ Zakšek, V., Bizjak-Mali, L., & Trontelj, P. (2023). The olm (Proteus anguinus), a flagship groundwater species. In Groundwater ecology and evolution (pp. 305-327). Academic Press. Zhang, X., Song, J., Fan, C., Guo, H., Wang, X. and Bleckmann, H. (2012), Use of electrosense in the feeding behavior of sturgeons. Integrative Zoology, 7: 74-82. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1749-4877.2011.00272.x March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 53 CITATIONS Gingko vs. Mycorrhizal Fungus Gar vs Cyanobacteria Chen, L. Q., & Han, N. L. (1999). Identification of ginkgo VA mycorrhizal fungi in Zhejiang province (in Chinese). Forest Research (Beijing), 12(6), 581–584. David, S. R., King, S. M., & Stein, J. A. (2018). Introduction to a special section: angling for dinosaurs—status and future study of the ecology, conservation, and management of ancient fishes. Transactions of the American Fisheries Society, 147(4), 623-625. Chen, Y., Fu, C., Wu, Z., Xu, H., Liu, H., Schneider, H., & Lin, J. (2021). Ginkgo biloba. Trends in Genetics, 37(5), 488-489. Marsaly, B., Daugherty, D., Shipley, O. N., Gelpi, C., Boyd, N., Davis, J., ... & Matich, P. (2023). Contrasting ecological roles and flexible trophic interactions of two estuarine apex predators in the western Gulf of Mexico. Marine Ecology Progress Series, 709, 55-76. Crane, P. R. (2019). An evolutionary and cultural biography of ginkgo. Plants, People, Planet, 1(1), 32-37. Fernández, N., Knoblochová, T., Kohout, P., Janoušková, M., Cajthaml, T., Frouz, J., & Rydlová, J. (2022). Asymmetric interaction between two mycorrhizal fungal guilds and consequences for the establishment of their host plants. Frontiers in Plant Science, 13, 873204. Partensky F, Hess WR, Vaulot D. 1999b. Prochlorococcus, a marine photosynthetic prokaryote of global significance. Microbiol. Mol. Biol. Rev. 63:106–27 Glomus aggregatum NCSchenck & GSSm. inDöring M (2022). English Wikipedia - Species Pages. Wikimedia Foundation. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/c3kkgh accessed via GBIF.org on 2025-01-29. Sergeev, V. N., Sharma, M., & Shukla, Y. (2012). Proterozoic fossil cyanobacteria. Birbal Sahni Inst. of Palaeobotany 61, 189-358. Smith, N. G., Daugherty, D. J., Brinkman, E. L., Wegener, M. G., Kreiser, B. R., Ferrara, A. M., ... & David, S. R. (2020). Advances in conservation and management of the Alligator Gar: a synthesis of current knowledge and introduction to a special section. North American Journal of Fisheries Management, 40(3), 527-543. Lin, H. Y., Li, W. H., Lin, C. F., Wu, H. R., & Zhao, Y. P. (2022). International biological flora: Ginkgo biloba. Journal of Ecology, 110(4), 951-982. Sun, D., Shang, X., Cao, H., Lee, S. J., Wang, L., Gan, Y., & Feng, S. (2024). Physio-Biochemical Mechanisms of Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi Enhancing Plant Resistance to Abiotic Stress. Agriculture, 14(12), 2361. Pelican vs. Horseshoe Crab Dannemiller, N. G., Watson, K. M., Christiansen, E. F., & Westmoreland, L. S. (2024). Traumatic telson avulsion and attempted external stabilization in Atlantic horseshoe crabs (Limulus polyphemus) (Vol. 43, No. 2, pp. 205-209). Elliott, A., D. A. Christie, F. Jutglar, E. Garcia, and G. M. Kirwan (2020). Great White Pelican (Pelecanus onocrotalus), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. Louchart, A., Tourment, N., & Carrier, J. (2011). The earliest known pelican reveals 30 million years of evolutionary stasis in beak morphology. Journal of Ornithology, 152(1), 15-20. Megaze, A., & Melesse, A. (2013). Diet preference and activity patterns of great white pelicans (Pelecanus onocrotalus, Linnaeus, 1758) at Lake Hawassa, Ethiopia. Ethiopian Journal of Biological Sciences, 12(2), 211-222. Walls, E. A., Berkson, J., & Smith, S. A. (2002). The horseshoe crab, Limulus polyphemus: 200 million years of existence, 100 years of study. Reviews in Fisheries Science, 10(1), 39-73. March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 54 GENETICS SPOTLIGHT The genomes of evolutionary relicts are as unique as the organisms are! for advanced computers. Usually, it takes a team of bioinformaticians and a lot of computing power to make it happen. To make the process easier, you can shortcut by using a genome you already know from a closely related species as a template. For example, the original human genome was very time consuming to assemble, but the chimpanzee genome was much easier, because 98.8% of the chimp genome is identical to ours! The Roots and Relics division of March Mammal Madness is a dream come true for an evolutionary biologist. We are deeply obsessed with these species that hark back to another epoch of life on Earth. Yet somehow, many of these species are still thriving today with little perceived change, at least compared to their fossil relatives. Unlike fossils, we can look at the genomes of living relicts and ask how they are different from other, later evolving, sibling species. But for these relicts, their uniqueness also means we don’t have a close template to use for assembly. Many of the species in Roots and Relicts division don’t yet have complete genomes, despite being so interesting to biologists. Genetics researchers around the world are working to complete these relict genomes, with only very few having completed genomes. But for those few species, their genomes have been full of surprises! Here are This is more difficult than it sounds – see; to assemble a new genome, you need to piece together millions of tiny pieces of genetic information that we get from sequencer machines. It’s a gigantic puzzle that is impossible to put together by any one person, and very difficult even March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 55 GENETICS SPOTLIGHT some interesting findings from three relict genomes, the platypus, the coelacanth, and the tuatara! Tuatara genomes are over-inflated with spam: genomes can expand and shrink over evolutionary times, so even sibling species may have genomes of different sizes. But the Tuatara takes the cake! Their genomes are estimated to be 5 Gigabase pairs long, for comparison, the human genome is only 3.2 Gigabase pairs long. That’s about one third longer than our own genomes, but 2.4 times longer than the genome of an anole lizard, which is a much closer relative. But that’s not all! Much of the bloated genome of the tuatara is made up of spam: 64% of their genome is made up of repetitive sequences, copies of the same genome element repeated multiple times. Some of these copies are shared with other reptiles, some which are more similar to those found in mammals, and many of which are unique to the tuatara; which is an extraordinary diversity of repeat elements. Platypuses have five sets of sex chromosomes: our genomes are compartmentalized into multiple chromosomes, humans for example carry two sets of 22 regular chromosomes, and one pair of a special type of chromosome called sex chromosomes, the X and Y. There are a lot of configurations for sex chromosomes within and among species: some rodents, for example, don’t even have a Y chromosome. Birds carry a completely different type of sex chromosomes called ZW chromosomes. Some reptiles don’t use sex chromosomes at all, they rely on environmental cues. But the platypus might be the weirdest of them all. Instead of a single pair of sex chromosomes, they carry five pairs! For right now we call these X and Y just like other mammals, five X and five Y, but they may even be their own new type just like birds, in which case we will need a new set of letters. -Prof Fernando Villanea, CU Boulder CITATIONS Zhou, Y., Shearwin-Whyatt, L., Li, J., Song, Z., Hayakawa, T., Stevens, D., ... & Zhang, G. (2021). Platypus and echidna genomes reveal mammalian biology and evolution. Nature, 592(7856), 756-762. Coelacanth genomes are slow to evolve: the coelacanth is famed as a living fossil, outwardly looking very similar to its ancestors living in the early Devonian (409 million years ago). This is an extraordinarily slow rate of physical change, but equally surprising was finding out that their genomes are also evolving at a slow rate. When looking at the rate coelacanth genomes accumulate differences–called the substitution rate–that rate is approximately half that in the tetrapods, which includes all amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals. Even their proteins have changed at a seemingly slow pace, but how much does this account for their remarkable physical immutability is still for debate! Amemiya, C. T., Alföldi, J., Lee, A. P., Fan, S., Philippe, H., MacCallum, I., ... & Lindblad-Toh, K. (2013). The African coelacanth genome provides insights into tetrapod evolution. Nature, 496(7445), 311-316. Gemmell, N. J., Rutherford, K., Prost, S., Tollis, M., Winter, D., Macey, J. R., ... & Ngatiwai Trust Board Stone Clive 40 Smillie Jim 40 Edmonds Haydn 40. (2020). The tuatara genome reveals ancient features of amniote evolution. Nature, 584(7821), 403-409. March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 56 Bluesky Banter March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 57 COMBATANT ARTWORK Olivia Pellicer! ko-fi.com/opellisms www.opellisms.com Charon Henning! ko-fi.com/oddangel www.charonhenning.com Valeria Pellicer! ko-fi.com/veppart www.vpellicerart.com Mary Casillas Freisner! ko-fi.com/marycasillas marycasillas.wix.com/paintings March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 58 CURRENT BRACKET k Ginkgo &Rhizo www.mammaldiversity.org March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 59 17 March 2025 If you’re learning, you’re winning! Since 2013 frugivores, and gliders for species that don’t have the true power of flight, but can get pretty far with adaptations for controlled descent. Thorold's Deer (1) vs Olympic Marmot (16) The "large, robust, but short-legged" Thorold's Deer (Cervus albirostris) has gray-brown fur with large, pointed ears and a reddish buff rump and fur grows twice a thick during the cold months (Leslie 2009). Olympic marmots (Marmota olympus) are a cat-sized rodent, adults with thick brown and white fur coats for warmth, with young having a greyer fur color. Olympic Marmots molt their fur twice a year, once in June and again during hibernation. Tonight we showcase the SAME & Different Division. These species have similar traits but NOT because they are closely related. Instead, natural selection has favored the same adaptations in distantly related species because these animals face the same challenges in their home environments. This is known as Convergent Evolution. And for the first time ever in MMM History we have the division organized into subDivisions- grasstastic for grazers, grub-diggers for insect-digging specialists, fig-fanciers for VJAnderson / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0 March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 60 R1: SAME & DIFFERENT compacted dirt "porches" that have a perimeter of thick grass growth. In the distance, a wolf howls -late winter on the Tibetan Plateau is no time to be picky- Olympic Marmot dashes into the burrow and beyond the Field of Battle! THOROLD'S DEER DEFEATS OLYMPIC MARMOT! Narrated by Katie Hinde. Here in the Himalayas of Nepal, spring comes later, and Thorold's Deer has scant food. With a summertime range stretching above 16,000 feet, Thorold's Deer is one of the rare deers adapted to elevations higher than the Sierras, Cascades, or Rocky Mountains. March is well into the "withering" season, and Thorold's Deer has migrated to lower elevations to make the most of winter grasses, shrubs, and woody barks. Meanwhile in Olympic National Park on the Washington Peninsula, Olympic Marmot is curled up cozy hibernating! Typically marmots stay in their burrows from September to May. BUT, having been rudely awakened from hibernation by MMMagical translocation, Olympic Marmot arrives near the Deer at the boundary of alpine meadow and alpine shrubland. Marmot looks groggily about the landscape as the Deer strips bark from a shrub. Suddenly the Marmot sprints across the snow toward a jumble of rocks and partially exposed earthen mound… chipojo / iNaturalist / CC BY-SA 4.0 Sun Bear (2) vs. 4-Toed Hedgehog (15) The smallest living ursid, male Sun Bear's (Helarctos malayanus) weigh up to 130lbs (65kg). Their common name comes from the U-shaped chest patch ranging in color from white to dark orange, that looks somewhat like a sunrise/sunset that most bears have. The four-toed Hedgehog (Atelerix albiventris) is found in the savanna and steppe zones of equatorial Africa. These hedge- ZhenningLiu / iNaturalist / CC BY-SA 4.0 IT'S A HIMALAYAN MARMOT BURROW!! But where's the porch?! Olympic Marmots are notable for their burrows that exit to a downslope of March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 61 wood to search for beetle larva. Hedgehog, grateful for being overlooked and unnoticed, uncurls and on tiny, adorable feet, pitter patters into the leaf litter to search for termites away from the digging Sun Bear, exiting the field of battle. SUN BEAR OUTLASTS HEDGEHOG! Narrated by Marc Kissel. Sunda Colugo (3) vs. N. Flying Squirrel (14) Sunda Colugo (Galeopterus variegatus) is much larger than Flying Squirrel (2kg vs 0.14kg, or 9 stoats vs half a stoat) with patchy colored fur for camouflage and forward facing eyes like primates (which is partly why they are also called flying lemurs). You can tell our wildcard winner apart from its sympatric cousin (Southern Flying Squirrel) because Northern Flying Squirrel (Glaucomys sabrinus) is larger, its tail is darker, and its hair is thicker. Jason Graham / Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain hogs tip the scales in at ~ 600 grams (so you would need ~110 of them to equal one sun bear). Sun Bear is wandering his home in the Ulu Segama Forest Reserve, Sabah, Malaysia. He has been awake since before sunrise, walking with his nose to the ground, sniffing debris on the forest floor, searching for invertebrates to omnomnom. MEANWHILE, Hedgehog is in the city of Ibadan, Nigeria eating a toad and spreading the toxic secretions on his spines to cause pain to potential predators. But before he finishes, he is whisked by #MMMagic translocation to the base of some decaying wood in Malaysia. Kent Ross / iNaturalist / CC BY-SA 4.0 Endemic to Southeast Asia, tonight we find Sunda Colugo hanging on a tree trunk thanks to her curled claws and suction-like soles of her feet in the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve, the last remnant of primary rainforest in Singapore. The city directly abuts the forest and colugos are so common here that the reserve features a Colugo Viewing Deck, shaped like a colugo in full-glide mode! MEANWHILE, over 9,000 miles away, Flying Squirrel forages on the forest floor in the As Sun Bear approaches the wood, Hedgehog lunges towards the approaching predator and curls into a defensive ball, SPINES OUT! Hedgehog’s dorsal spines, the longest of which are 17 mm, sticking out like a land urchin. Sun Bear doesn't even notice the Hedgehog... and his paw comes down... down... down. JUST missing the hedgehog, as the other clawed paw breaks into the decayed March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 62 R1: SAME & DIFFERENT Northern Flying squirrel's claws dig into...THAT'S NOT BARK, THAT'S COLUGO! Colugo flinches and Northern Flying Squirrel is surprise-startled into kicking off from the trunkGO GO RODENT PATAGIUM DEPLOYS and NORTHERN FLYING SQUIRREL GLIDES BEYOND THE FIELD OF BATTLE! As the dull noises of the rainforest return, Colugo continues to cling to the tree trunk, remaining completely still. COLUGO OUTLASTS NORTHERN FLYING SQUIRREL! Narrated by Patrice Connors. Adirondak Mountains of upstate New York. Mid-hop, Flying Squirrel is transported via #MMMagic translocation to Bukit Timah 10 feet up a tree trunk. Flying Squirrel takes a vigilant stance completely still, head raised, scanning the new environment with caution. Twenty feet above the Flying Squirrel, Colugo clings to the tree trunk and remains completely still, which is her first anti-predatory tactic. The rainforest is quiet .... much too quiet. Flying Squirrel climbs higher to a better vantage point, to a more enclosed canopy, and a preferred height for gliding. Northern Flying Squirrel's curved claws dig into the bark as he works his uniquely squirrely wrist muscles! Flying squirrel speed climbs circles around the tree, all the time closing in on the motionless camouflaged Colugo. Aardvark (7) vs. Bandicoot (10) Aardvarks (Orycteropus afer) are notable for their long nose, wider at the far end, their squared-off head, a tapering tail, and very impressive ears. Their body is massive with really thick skin and they have very muscular limbs ending in thick-nailed toesies. Southern brown bandicoots (Isoodon obesulus) are small marsupials made up of 40% tail... or they would be if they didn't routinely lose chunks of tail (or all of it) from male combat. Their short, coarse fur ranges from black, grey, brown and golden yellow, with extremely small, rounded ears. In the Nama-Karoo in western South Africa, an Aardvark has dug up... an aardvark cucumber! Usually eating insects, this cucumber is the only fruit aardvarks eat and Aardvark cucumbers rely on aardvarks to disperse their seeds. Meanwhile, in Western Australia, specifically Yalgorup National Park, a Bandicoot is poking his nose into the ground, digging just 1 of the 45 foraging pits he will make a day searching for invertebrates tubers, seeds and fungi. Manipulating soil for food (biopedturbation) helps soil turnover. Bandicoot hears grunting and squeaking from nearby, indicating another bandicoot is close. andraescholz / iNaturalist/ CC BY-SA 4.0 March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 63 Paca (5) vs. Mouse-deer (12) The mouse-deer (Tragulus napu) is a small, rabbit-sized ungulate weighing between 5 to 8 kg (or roughly 30 stoats, #StoatsAsMeasurement). A rounded body perched on pencil-thin legs, male mouse-deer have neither horns nor antlers, but small, tusk-like canines. The paca (Cuniculus paca) is a large forest rodent (6 -12 kg, or around 50 stoats) with a rounded body and thick, strong legs. Paca have sleek chocolate-brown fur with several rows of white spots and broad cheekbones. Niall Perrins / iNaturalist / CC BY 4.0 He squeaks back, preparing for battle, readying to “strike with its claws and removing patches of hair" (Driessen & Rose 2015). Bandicoot scoots forward... #MMMagic translocates the marsupial to the Karoo. Bandicoot sees a big, rounded mammal nearby. Clouds cover the full moon's light, shadowing the desert landscape. Bandicoot mistakes Aardvark for a simple wombat doing wombat deeds. Bandicoot begins to forage for termites while Aardvark slakes his thirst- the cucumber is a key source of water in this landscape. But Aardvark still seeks some protein. Aardvark's long snoot starts sniffing for termites. Bandicoot, still certain the nearby stranger is a wombat, seems unconcerned, but the two are about to converge at a termite mound. The clouds shift, casting moonlight onto the scene... Bandicoot gazes in horror upon the strange Aardvark and flees from the stranger in the night beyond the field of battle! AARDVARK SURPRISES BANDICOOT! Narrated by Marc Kissel. Silvano LG / iNaturalist / CC BY-NC 4.0 Moonlight shimmers across the waters of the Brazilian Pantanal, and the Paca is at the opening of her den. She emits a low grunt and waits for her young, precocious pup to follow her out for a night of foraging. On the edge of a different river in Sumatra, the Mouse-deer is moving through the dense underbrush at the edge of his territory. He stops and rubs his jaw along a nearby tree, marking it using the gland under his chin. Satisfied with his efforts, Mouse-deer turns to continue his patrol of his territory but is whisked through the MMMagic translocation portal, and finds himself staring at a hole and the face of an unfamiliar creature. Rolf Lawrenz / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY 4.0 He freezes, one of his front feet slightly raised. The deer-like rodent stares at the rodent-like deer. The rodent-like deer stares at the deer-like rodent. March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 64 R1: SAME & DIFFERENT Moonlight filters through the forest canopy of Corcovado National Park, Costa Rica as our Coati snuffles along, his long nose buried in the leaf litter searching for one last snack before bedtime. Over on the Caribbean island of Cuba, our Bat stretches a wing and scratches at her shoulder, just below the patch of pure white fur. Royle Safaris / iNaturalists / CC BY-SA 4.0 GRROOOANNN! A low grumble as Paca grinds her teeth loudly in agitation as the fur along her spine rises. Thump. Thump. Thump. Mouse-deer stamps his front feet in an increasing rhythm. Paca emits a series of loud grunts and positions her body to shield her pup. With a lurch, she lunges forward, teeth bared. Paca bites down hard on the nose of the Mouse-deer! Startled, Mouse-deer turns and sprints away, leaving Paca still at the entrance to her burrow. PACA DEFEATS MOUSE-DEER! Narrated by Alyson Brokaw. Coati (4) vs 13th seed Fig-eating Bat (13) With an elgonated nose, pale eye and nose 'mask', and long, slender tail that equals their body length, Coatis (Nasua narica) look a bit like a stretched out raccoon (to whom they are related). The fig-eating bat (Phyllops falcatus), also known as the Cuban white-shouldered bat, has broad shoulders, a short, square jaw and a short, spear-shaped nose leaf. Unlike most other bats, the membrane between their first and second fingers is transparent. Phil Chaon / iNaturalist / CC BY-SA 4.0 A warm wind rustles across the surface of her green leaf tent when...WHOOSH! She's suddenly mid-air in the Costa Rican forest from #MMMagic translocation! She flings out her long wings just in time, the trailing edge of her wing brushes ever so slightly against a long, fluffy... flower? That 'flower' is the upright tail of the Coati! Coati doesn't even notice- he is eating figs! Bat's nose leaf twitches rapidly as she echolocates, March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 65 Tonight, Greater Glider slowly emerges from her hallowed-out nest high in trees of the Snowy River National Park (located in eastern Victoria and the southern edge of her homerange) and stretches to prepare for a night of foraging on eucalyptus leaves. MEANWHILE, over 3,000 miles away on the island of Borneo, Flying Snake searches for a safe place high in the forest canopy to rest after spending the day hunting for geckos and skinks. Flying Snake slithers carefully among the large leaves of a Shorea tree but thanks to #MMMagic Translocation, is suddenly is surrounded by small, slender Eucalyptus leaves. Cello Caruso-Turiello / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY 4.0 Greater Glider walks out onto a branch and steps on the tail of Flying Snake. Flying Snake quickly retracts its tail, whips its head around, and frantically smells the air with its tongue. getting her bearings. Though the forest is not that different from home, she does not like moonlight. Despite the name, Fig-Eating Bat doesn't particularly like figs, either. Analyses of fecal samples reveal this bat consumes Cercropia seeds, non-native rose-apple (Syzgium), and insects. CHOMP! CHOMP! Fig-Eating Bat catches an insect right as Coati grabs the bat in his mouth. Afterall, fecal samples of Coati reveal 10% of their diet can be mammal prey! COATI CONSUMES FIGS... AND FIG-EATING BAT! Narrated by Alyson Brokaw. Rushen / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 2.0 Wasting no time with this larger potential predator, Flying Snake launches into the air! Wasting no time with this slithery, venomous snake, Greater Glider launches into the air! Greater Glider (6) vs. Paradise Flying Snake (11) Greater Glider (Petauroides volans) is an adorably furry, arboreal marsupial with dexterous digits and a long, luxurious tail, and about the size of a cat (1.5kg, around 3 lbs, approximately 7 stoats). She also claims the title of largest gliding possum. Paradise Flying Snake (Chrysopelea paradisi) is a long (1.5m, about 5 ft, 4.5 stoats), slender reptile that is mostly black and displays colorful scales ranging from reds and yellows to brilliant greens. Greater Glider folds her arms and tucks her wrists under her chin to open her patagium, looking like a triangular kite, and uses her tail as a rudder, hoping to land 100 m away and far away from the snake. Flying Snake flattens its body by splaying out its ribs to generate lift and wiggles in a specific way to maximize their horizontal distance ("aerial undulations" according to Yeaton et al 2020). Both competitors are now gliding March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 66 R1: SAME & DIFFERENT David C. Simon / iNaturalist / CC BY-SA 4.0 Josh Bowell / iNaturalist / CC BY-SA 4.0 away from the Eucalyptus tree in the same direction! Who will fly the furthest?! Who will be off the field of battle?!?! WHOOOOSH Out of the darkness, a Powerful Owl swoops TALONS OUT and snatches the Greater Glider out of the air mid-glide! Powerful Owl (Ninox strenua) is the largest owl on the continent of Oz (2 ft tall with 4.5 ft wingspan) and Powerful Owls love a meal of Greater Glider or Ringtail Possums. Flying Snake lands unharmed 10 m/33 ft away, moving frantically through the hard underbrush to find a new tree for safety. FLYING SNAKE OUTLASTS GREATER GLIDER! Narrated by Patrice Connors. March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 67 Gelada (8) vs. Eastern Grey Kangaroo (9) The gelada (Theropithecus gelada) has a tawny, brown shaggy coat- with males flaunting an especially impressive mantle. Intensely herbivorous, these primates spend their days hard at work in the grass mines using nimble fingers to select the best grass blades for eating. Eastern Grey Kangaroos (Macropus giganteus) are a mostly grey-furred macropod. In terms of convergent evolution, they are the marsupial equivalent of a deer: eating grass, widely distributed, living in many different habitats. But there are no hoofed marsupials because when they are born at a very early stage of development they have to commando crawl to the mom's pouch so they have to have grippy front legs as hooves would never be favored by natural selection in the context of this reproductive system. Unaware of the marsupial's arrival below, Gelada grazes grass, grumbling to groupmates, edging closer to the hill crest and the downward, grassy slope. Kangaroo does his slow, cautious two-step move, First Step: reach forward and support with front arms, Second Step: Swing back legs forward to replace clawed front paws, slowly getting closer to the hillcrest. Gelada appears on the edge of the plateau and sees Kangaroo! Gelada gives a quick startled alarm- what the? Is Kangaroo a predator?! This animal looks and moves NOTHING like a leopard! But whatever it is, it is 3 times bigger than Gelada. Eastern Grey Kangaroo tries to figure out if Gelada is a predator- that long muzzle is very Dingo-like- and the primate's mouth begins to open to reveal blade-sharp canines. Nearly-silent paws pad in the grass behind Gelada! An Ethiopian Wolf pounces into the scene! In the woodland grassland of inland Queensland, a strongly muscled male Eastern Grey Kangaroo rests in the shade in the loosely associated mob when he is MMMagically translocated to the grassy downward slope below a hillcrest on the Guassa Plateau in the Ethiopian Highlands. Scanning the hillside, he can see none of his kangaroo mob anywhere nearby. Finding himself alone, Kangaro immediately increases his predator vigilance since with no others nearby to keep an eye and ear out for danger. Seeing no one below, Kangaroo approaches the hill crest to look for others. Immediately perceiving danger from the dingo-like canid, Kangaroo releases the impressive kinetic power of macropod jumping to flee down the hill! Gelada looks over at the Ethiopian Wolf, now ripping into the rodent it just caught… after all, March is when solo Ethiopian wolves are most likely to be peacefully hunting rodents amongst grazing Geladas. GELADA OUTLASTS EASTERN GREY KANGAROO! Narrated by Katie Hinde. Charles J. Sharp / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 2.0 March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 68 CITATIONS Gelada vs. Eastern Grey Kangaroo Greater Glider vs. Paradise Flying Snake Colagross, A. M., & Cockburn, A. (1993). Vigilance and grouping in the eastern gray kangaroo, Macropus Giganteus. Australian Journal of Zoology, 41(4), 325-334. Bilney, R. J. (2013). Geographic variation in the diet of the Powerful Owl (Ninox strenua) at a local scale. Australian Journal of Zoology, 61(5), 372-377. Hiller, C. 2000. "Theropithecus gelada" (On-line), Animal Diversity Web. Accessed March 14, 2025 at https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Theropithecus_gelada/ Burbidge, A.A. & Woinarski, J. 2020. Petauroides volans (amended version of 2016 assessment). The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2020: e.T40579A166500472. https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2020-1.RLTS.T40579A1 66500472.en. Accessed on 17 March 2025. 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L., Yeong, C., & Spence, A. J. (2011). Sex differences in the locomotor ecology of a gliding mammal, the Malayan colugo (Galeopterus variegatus). Journal of Mammalogy, 92(2), 444-451. Murphy-Williams, M. (2020). Climate Change Impacts in Alpine Meadows: Environmental Factors Correlated with the Decline of the Olympic Marmot (Marmota olympus) Population in Olympic National Park, Washington State (Doctoral dissertation). Thorington Jr, R. W., & Darrow, K. (2000). Anatomy of the squirrel wrist: bones, ligaments, and muscles. Journal of Morphology, 246(2), 85-102. Vanisova, E. A., & Nikol’skii, A. A. 2021. Local human influence on the Himalayan Marmot (Marmota himalayana (Hodgson, 1841)) population in Nepal (Mammalia: Rodentia). Wells-Gosling, N., & Heaney, L. R. (1984). Glaucomys sabrinus. Mammalian species, (229), 1-8. Werhahn, G., Kusi, N., Li, X., Chen, C., Zhi, L., Martín, R. L., ... & Macdonald, D. W. (2019). Himalayan wolf foraging ecology and the importance of wild prey. Global Ecology and Conservation, 20, e00780. Coati vs. Fig-Eating Bat Alves-Costa, C. P., Da Fonseca, G. A., & Christófaro, C. (2004). Variation in the diet of the brown-nosed coati (Nasua nasua) in southeastern Brazil. Journal of mammalogy, 85(3), 478-482. Whitesides, C. J. (2015). The bioturbation of Olympic marmots (Marmota olympus) and their impacts on soil properties. Physical Geography, 36(3), 202-214. Gompper, M.E. (1995) Nasua narica. Mammalian Species, (487), 1-10. Tavares, V.C., & C.A. Mancina. (2008). Phyllops falcatus (Chiroptera: Phyllostomidae). Mammalian Species, (811), 1-7. You, Z., Deng, J., Liu, J., Fu, J., Xiong, H., Luo, W., & Xiong, J. (2022). Seasonal variations in the composition and diversity of gut microbiota in white-lipped deer (Cervus albirostris). PeerJ, 10, e13753. Valenzuela, D. (1998). Natural history of the white-nosed coati, Nasua narica, in a tropical dry forest of western Mexico. Revista Mexicana de Mastozoología, 3(1), 26-44. Sun Bear vs. Hedgehog Zeppelini, C.G., Azeredo, L.M.M., & L.C.S. Lopez. (2019). Bats like dimmer lights: lunar phobia as a luminosity thredhold phenomenon on Neotropical bats (Mammalia: Chiroptera). Acta Ethologica, (22), 125-128. Brodie JR, E. D. (1977). Hedgehogs use toad venom in their own defence. Nature, 268(5621), 627-628. Santana, E. M., Jantz, H. E., & Best, T. L. (2010). Atelerix albiventris (Erinaceomorpha: Erinaceidae). Mammalian Species, 42(857), 99-110. MMMagazine Wong, S.T. (2002). Food habits of Malayan sun bears in lowland tropical forest of Borneo. Ursus, 13, 127-136. by Katie Hinde, Margaret Janz, Melanie Beasley, & William Yates March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 70 GENETICS SPOTLIGHT So how can species be both the same and different? Scientists believe that the earliest mammals could enter torpor, a deep sleep-like state that lasts for days. Some mammals—like tenrecs in Madagascar—still do this today. But for animals facing long, freezing winters, torpor wasn’t enough. Over time, it evolved into full hibernation. During hibernation, their heart rate slows, and blood flow decreases, sending energy only to the most important organs, like the brain and heart. Their metabolism (how the body uses energy) slows so much that they can survive for months on just their stored fat. Then, when spring arrives, they wake up, crawl out, and start searching for food again! Sometimes, a trait is so useful that it evolves independently in many different species. This process is called convergent evolution For scientists like me, who study how DNA works, convergent evolution is like a secret key to discovering the genetic changes that create exceptional traits. There are many different examples of convergent evolution (like the subdivisions of The Same and Different Division!), but one of the most incredible is hibernation. When winter comes and food becomes scarce, some species prepare by eating as much as possible and storing energy as fat. Then, they find a safe place, like a warm hole or burrow, settle in, and wait for spring. Hibernation is such an effective survival strategy that it has evolved many times in different lineages of mammals. Bears are probably the most famous hibernators, but many other mammals hibernate too, including ground squirrels, woodchucks, hedgehogs, echidnas, and lots and lots of bats! March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 71 GENETICS SPOTLIGHT Humans, though, can not hibernate. If we stop moving for too long, we can get blood clots, and our muscles and brain can weaken. Since studying bears in a lab would be a little difficult,we are studying their cells instead. First, we cool the cells down, and then we study them to see what happens inside bear cells, ground squirrel cells, and little brown bat cells to keep them healthy in the cold—things that don’t happen in human cells. Convergent evolution was the key to finding genetic changes that allow hibernation. In the Zoonomia Project, we compared the DNA of 22 hibernating species to figure out what they all have in common, and how they are different from 154 species of non-hibernators (including humans). This is just the first step toward understanding hibernation. If we unlock its secrets, it could teach us new ways to keep our brains, hearts and muscles healthy, and maybe even help us travel to Mars. We discovered that genes involved in protecting mitochondria (the tiny parts of cells that produce energy) are particularly important for hibernation. This makes sense because hibernators must keep their cells healthy even while they are not moving, eating, or staying warm. Now, we’re trying to figure out exactly how these genes work. -Prof. Elinor Karlsson, UMass & Broad Institute Christmas MJ, Kaplow IM, Genereux DP… & Karlsson EK. (2023). Evolutionary constraint and innovation across hundreds of placental mammals. Science, 380(6643), eabn3943. March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 72 Bluesky Banter Why so many branches of the tree of life becomes "crabs" a process known as “carcinization” March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 73 COMBATANT ARTWORK Charon Henning! ko-fi.com/oddangel www.charonhenning.com Olivia Pellicer! ko-fi.com/opellisms www.opellisms.com Mary Casillas Freisner! ko-fi.com/marycasillas marycasillas.wix.com/paintings Valeria Pellicer! ko-fi.com/veppart www.vpellicerart.com March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 74 CURRENT BRACKET March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 75 19 March 2025 If you’re learning, you’re winning! Since 2013 jacket. Their hair appears white because it reflects visible light and provides camouflage against snow and sea ice. Their eyes, nose, lips, and skin are black. The Eurasian water shrew (Neomys fodiens) has dark fur with a white underside and their teeth are red-tipped from iron in the enamel #SoMetal. This adaptation protects teeth from wear and tear during crushing and grinding. Tonight, our combatant Polar Bear hunts the ice habitat of the Beaufort Sea in the Arctic. 2024 was the hottest year on record, as the burning of fossil fuels accelerates earth's atmosphere toward catastrophic global warming, and shrinks the sea ice Polar Bears rely on. TONIGHT everyone likes a sharp-dressed AN… imal in the Tuxedo Style Division of species in shades of grey from whitest snow to obsidian sable. Learn more about the selective pressures that shape these color patterns and the genetics underlying them in the battles and in the SPOTLIGHT on Genetics! Regehr Eric, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service/ Public Domain Meanwhile, in the United Kingdom, our combatant Eurasian Water Shrew dashes from a creek toward his den, red-tipped teeth crushing through a freshwater snail. He squeezes through the small den entrance, pushing water from his coat to dry more quickly. “Water shrews must Polar Bear (1) vs. Eurasian Water Shrew (16) Polar Bears (Ursus maritimus) have translucent, hollow hair that keeps them warm like a puffy March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 76 R1: TUXEDO STYLE Narwhal (2) vs. Eastern Spotted Skunk (15) Narwhal (Monodon monoceros) coloration changes with age. Juveniles start out uniform bluish-black and increased white mottling appears as they get older. Most adults appear speckled while very old individuals can be almost fully white. Eastern spotted skunks (Spilogale putorius) have short legs supporting elongated bodies and large fluffy tail. Their fur is black with interrupted bands of white stripes and spots. Like many skunks these colors serve as a warning to predators of their chemical defenses. eat every two to three hours and consume 50% of their body weight daily in order to sustain their high metabolic rate and avoid starvation" (Champneys 2012). The Shrew takes a break between hunts. Håkan Söderholm / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0 Polar bear sits motionless next to a gap in the sea ice when #MMMagic translocates Eurasian Water Shrew into the water below the sea ice hole! Polar Bear does not move, does not even notice the tiny swimstrokes of the 15 gram Water Shrew. The fur of the Water Shrew traps air, helping his buoyancy in freshwater, now in the salty sea water, shrew is even more bouyant, and the long hairs on his toes help Water Shrew swim toward the sea ice... but the water is so cold! Big eyes appear from the depths, swimming below Shrew! Gazprom neft / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0 Narwhal has the home habitat advantage. We find an older male swimming with its pod along the edge of sea ice in the Davis Strait. Narwhal spends winter here, until late May when the ice breaks up enough to start migrating further North. In the Midwest, a lone Spotted Skunk is out hunting. Spotted skunks are rare in this area, because historical skunk populations crashed following diet changes from shifting agricultural practices. Suddenly #MMMagic translocates Spotted Skunk far north to the edge of an ice sheet! Immediately halting his hunt, Spotted Skunk assesses this icy environment. Polar Bear plunges into the water through a seal’s breathing hole! Water Shrew is crushed between marine predator and marine prey! In Water Shrew's final death throes, seawater flooding his mouth, Water Shrew slashes his tiny, red-tipped teeth -with venomous saliva- into Polar Bear! POLAR BEAR PLUNGES EURASIAN WATER SHREW! Narrated by Katie Hinde. March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 77 SWIRLING Narwhal sloshes water onto the ice shelf, unbalancing Spotted Skunk's handstand. Spotted Skunk drops down to all four feet and seeing the massive Narwhal, scampers quickly away from the edge of the ice shelf... and off the field of battle! NARWHAL SLOSHES EASTERN SPOTTED SKUNK! Narrated by Brian Tanis Malayan Tapir (5) vs. Southern Luzon Giant Cloud Rat (12): Malayan Tapir (Tapirus indicus), largest of the living tapirs - females can be up to 540 kg (about 1190 lbs) and 2.5m (8.2 ft) from long snout to short tail. Tapir is black with a distinct white band extending from its stout midline to its hind quarters. Baby Tapirs are similarly distinct and look like black-and-white watermelon. Cloud Rat (Phloeomys cumingi) is pretty big…for a rodent, weighing up to 4.6 lb (2.1 kg), measuring up to 30 inches (75 cm) in length, and wearing a sleek dark coat. It also differs from most other rodents in the family Muridae by having one set of mammary glands. kaileepearson / iNaturalist / CC BY-SA 4.0 Next to the ice shelf, the Narwhal begins surfacing. His single tusk, a spiraling canine tooth almost exclusively developed in males, protrudes out of its face, extending nearly 9 feet. THE NARWHAL TUSK RISES OUT OF THE WATER, DRIPPING WATER ONTO SPOTTED SKUNK! Spotted Skunk seeing the Narwhal tusk wonders IS THIS A SNAKE!? Or some other predator?! Skunk begins the escalation countdown: ONE! Spotted Skunk stamps his feet to warn this possible enemy!THE NARWHAL TUSK RISES HIGHER! Countdown: TWO! Spotted skunk does his next move in aggressive escalation... A HANDSTAND! Countdown: TWO AND A HALF! SPOTTED SKUNK WAVES HIS TWITCHING TAIL! #GetBig NARWHAL'S FACE AND BODY SURFACE RIGHT NEXT TO SPOTTED SKUNK ON THE ICE SHELF, NARWHAL SWIRLS TO GET AN EYE-LEVEL VIEW ON SKUNK. Jaroslav Vogeltanz / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0 March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 78 R1: TUXEDO STYLE strong claws & forelimbs, making a brief irritated growl at unaware Tapir. A tree next to Cloud Rat's tree has some delicious smelling fruit, and Malayan Tapir begins snarfling fruit, turning her rear toward Cloud Rat's who is emitting a brief, irritated growl… when suddenly tapir is backing up to scent mark cloud rat's tree trunk! At dusk in the rainforests of the Taninthayi Nature Reserve in Myanmar, Malayan Tapir zigzags between sub-canopy trees, foraging for fruit, shoots, and leaves to meet her need to feed (up to 4-5% of her body mass in one day!). Meanwhile, on the island of Luzon in the Philippines, Cloud Rat wakes in a hole of a large tree to begin his active period by looking for new leaves to eat. Cloud Rat surveys the area for humans, their only predator. This species is hunted for culinary and medicinal purposes. Often solitary as adults, Malayan Tapir rely on scent marking to signal their presence and reproductive states to other Tapir in the area, scent-marking in the evening means the scent is fresh for other Tapir active in the night-time. Before getting squished by Tapir booty or saturated in Tapir urine, Cloud Rat race climbs toward the canopy and beyond the field of battle! TAPIR BOOTY DISPLACES CLOUD RAT! Narrated by Chloe Josefson. MMMagic translocates Cloud Rat to the rainforest floor in Myanmar, right in the path of tromping Malayan Tapir! Cloud Rat immediately lunges toward a tree trunk, climbs a couple feet with his Ribbon Seal (7) vs Southern Tamandua (10) Ribbon Seals (Histriophoca fasciata) have dark fur with four very distinct wide bands of white encircling their neck, hips, and each front flipper. Differences in "ribbons" can be used to identify individuals and are thought to help hide the shape of the seal from a distance. Southern Tamandua (Tamandua tetradactyla) are small arboreal anteaters with a long, thin nose. They are covered in pale cream fur with variable amounts of black patches around the shoulders, typically looking like they are wearing a vest or collar. Our battle takes place in the home habitat of the Ribbon Seal, on a thick ice floe in the Bearing Sea. Here a large male has hauled out of the water to allow for its annual molting of fur and skin. Far Rufus46 / iNaturalist / CC BY-SA 3.0 March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 79 Tamandua is a seal pup. Pups are born white with a wooly coat of fur and only show markings when they molt at 3-5 weeks old. Michael Cameron, NOAA/NMFS/AKFSC/NMML / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY 2.0 Male seals typically are absent for birth and weaning, not showing up until May for mating season. Females often leave pups unattended on the ice. Maybe there's an early mating chance if the seal waits by the fuzzy thing? The Seal gets closer to investigate! Threatened by the approaching Seal, the Tamandua rears up on its hind legs to better defend itself with long curved claws that can easily tear away at termite nests when foraging. Under continued duress, the Taumandu backs up. In the forest it will back into a tree or rock to protect itself while facing an attacker. Unfortunately here there is only the edge of the ice, and with a small splash the Taumandu tumbles into the ocean waters… OFF the field of battle. RIBBON SEAL DEFEATS SOUTHERN TAMANDUA! Narrated by Brian Tanis. away in a dense, Bolivian rainforest, a female Tamandua is using her long sticky tongue to slurp up ants from a nest in a tree. Suddenly, MMMagic translocates the Taumandu to the sea ice! Tamandua spend very little time on the ground and this one clumsily walks around searching for trees, a stranger in a strange land.... or lack of land. The cold air rapidly pulls the warmth from the Tamandua. The underside of her long prehensile tail lacks fur, to aid in holding tree branches. Now Tamandua curls that tail around her body to retain some warmth. Wild Yak (3) vs. Zorilla (14) Wild yak (Bos mutus) are not a sight to miss. Not that you could miss the huge fluffy dudes. One of the largest extant bovids, yaks are covered in long, shaggy dark hair. They top off their look w/ a lovely grey or gold accent muzzle. Not to be outdone, our other #TuxedoStyleDivision combatant, the striped polecat or zorilla (Ictonyx striatus), is a mustelid sharing an adaptive style guide like their Mephitid cousin skunk's: they're covered in black fur broken up with white stripes running on their back from head to tail. Ribbon Seals are typically less wary on ice than most seals, possibly due to poor vision in air. Craning his neck the Seal tries to see if Rolf Lawrenz / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY 4.0 Tonight's battle takes place in a remote, high-elevation alpine meadow. Surrounding the Breno Farias / iNaturalist / CC BY-SA 4.0 March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 80 R1: TUXEDO STYLE Royle Safaris / iNaturalists / CC BY-SA 4.0 花蚀 / iNaturalist / CC BY-SA 4.0 Henry de Lange / iNaturalist / CC BY-SA 4.0 meadow is the backdrop of the alpine steppes and mountainous terrain of the Tibetan Plateau in Chang Tang Reserve. A herd of yak is grazing in the cold sunshine. Meanwhile in Gambia, Zorilla is on the hunt. This solitary, nocturnal carnivore is on the trail of a small rodent. He stops, hearing the scritch-scratch of small rodents near the edge of his forest-savanna territory. Zorilla silently stalks his prey, ambush leaps… right as the MMMagic Translocation portal opens! Time to ESCALATE. Zorilla takes a threat stance: He turns around, plants sharp little feet, arches his back, shrieks a high pitched scream, and lifts tail straight up in the air so that his rear end is facing the Yak. That black and white pattern of Zorilla (and skunks) advertise their juicy defenses to possible predators and that they are not worth attacking or eating (a tactic called aposematism). Yak steps forward for some more lichen. Zorilla sprays a foul-smelling fluid from her anal glands towards the Yak! A bitter Himalayan wind blows Zorillas spray back onto himself! #LiteralBackfire. Defeated, Zorilla runs from the field of battle, screaming an undulating submission scream. YAK IGNORES ZORILLA! Narrated by Maura Dasari. Zorilla leaps onto the Tibetan plateau field of battle! Zorilla skids to a halt on the icy moss, assessing these new, chilly surroundings. Starting to actually freeze, he sniffs the... MUSKY air. A huge male Yak at the edge of the herd looks over. The piece of lichen he's nonchalantly chewing dangles from his mouth. Zorilla goes on red alert and tiny bellows a warning call at Yak - "a low energy sound with suppressed harmonics." (Channing and Rowe-Rowe, 1977). Yak swipes his tongue to bring the dangling lichen into his mouth while watching the Zorilla. Mountain Zebra (6) vs. White-Faced Capuchin (11) Mountain Zebra (Equus zebra) wears their classic #TuxedoStyleDivision colors in some tasteful black and white stripes. While the whole March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 81 Bernard Dupont / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 2.0 herd is dressed to the nines, each individual has their own unique stripe pattern that can help identify who they are and who their family is. As one may guess from the name, the White-faced Capuchin (Cebus capucinus) does indeed have white fur covering their face and shoulders. This striking #TuxedoStyleDivision competitor completes its ensemble by covering the rest of its body in dark fur. #oooh #ahhh. nuisance today. His ears swivel to avoid fly bites and he whips his tail in an defensive attempt. Capuchin looks around for his conspecifics, where'd the group go? Where are the lucious and trees they were just foraging in? Looking up for trees, Capuchin gets his eyes full of falling sand! Tonight's battle takes place in Etosha National Park, Namibia. It's mid-morning and a small group of Mountain Zebra are gathered near the Okaukuejo waterhole. MEANWHILE, it's about 5AM in Panama and our White-faced Capuchin is nestled alongside his groupmates high up in the rainforest canopy. The early morning light hasn't reached this crew just quite yet, so he's sleeeeeeeping. Suddenly, MMMagic translocates White-faced Capuchin into the dust surrounding the watering hole. Bleary-eyed, Capuchin takes in the arid surroundings he finds himself in. Mountain Zebra uses his hard, pointed hooves to create a small depression in the dirt. It's one of many he's made in the area. The flies are quite the Mkt47 / iNaturalist / CC BY-SA 2.0 March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 82 R1: TUXEDO STYLE Zebra is dust-bathing! Without a loofa in sight, the Zebra elaborately lowers himself down to the dusty ground and lies flat on his side in a favored dust "rolling pit" (Joubert 1972; Wagner, Uiseb, & Fischer 2021). Capuchin is distraught. He's alone. He has dusty eyes. Luckily, he's got some transferable skills: he is very adept at careful 'eye-poking', or inserting a conspecific's finger into his own eye up to the first knuckle and guides his own finger to remove the dust from his eyes. Zebra continues his dust bath. He swishes his tail, sending dust flying onto his legs, and starts to roll directly toward capuchin! Capuchin blinks the last dust from his eyes as a shadow falls… ROLLING ZEBRA IS CLOSING IN! Like Indiana Jones fleeing a rolling boulder, White-faced Capuchin scampers away from the herd of hoofed, dust-dousing mammals, fleeing the dusty field of battle! MOUNTAIN ZEBRA DUSTS WHITE-FACED CAPUCHIN! Narrated by Maura Dasari. Alex R / iNaturalist / CC BY-SA 4.0 head and shoulders covered in white/grey-white fur except for black eye patches; a subspecies found in Borneo is white with black guard hairs. Tonight we find Cape Buffalo in the Okavango Delta in Botswana, a large delta system that flows neither into a sea nor ocean and relies on seasonal flood cycles. Buffalo here respond to environmental changes by altering the size of their herd. A large, lone male grazes and ruminates on the periphery of his herd. Cape Buffalo (4) vs. Moonrat (13) Cape Buffalo (Syncerus caffer caffer) are big, horned, even-toed ungulates with males weighing about 835 kg (1840 lbs) and have shoulders around 1.7 m (5.6 ft) high. Cape Buffalo's coat is black/dark brown and adult males have large horns that are very close together at the base (called a "boss") and curve upwards at the ends reaching around 1.3 m (4.3 ft) wide. Adult females have small horns (but no boss). Moonrats (Echinosorex gymnura) are small (females are larger and weigh up to 2kg/4.4lbs) mammals that are not rodents but belong to the family Erinaceidae (with hedgehogs). Moonrat is mostly black with MEANWHILE in the mangrove forests of Sumatra, Indonesia, Moonrat finds itself nestled in an abandoned burrow after a long night of munching earthworms. Moonrats prefer a solitary lifestyle and rarely will tolerate other moonrats. MMMagic Translocates Moonrat to the sunny, late afternoon grasslands of the Delta. Moonrat is not pleased; they are nocturnal and used to living in moist forests. March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 83 mouth aimed at Moonrat's body! HISS-PUFF. HISS-PUFF. yip. HISS-PUFF. HISS-PUFF. yip. CHOMP. yip. Royle Safaris / iNaturalist / CC BY-SA 4.0 Jackal stops, teeth clenched around Moonrat. Jackal aims its large ears towards the yips in the distance, which seem to be coming closer. The distant yips worry Jackal; these yips belong to a pack of African wild dogs (Lycaon pictus) that will suppress competition by hunting Jackal. Jackal trots off the battlefield, stinky Moonrat treat in its jaws. Cape Buffalo chews the cud in its mouth and belches. CAPE BUFFALO OUTLASTS MOONRAT! Narrated by Chloe Josefson. Scared and unsure where to run for cover, Moonrat freezes into a hunched, open-mouthed position. Tasmanian Devil (8) vs. Delacour's Langur (9) Once living in much of Australia but now only found in Tasmania, the Tasmanian Devil (Sarcophilus harrisii) is a stocky marsupial carnivore- their black coat has a slash of white across the chest and some white spots on the torso. The biggest males can be over 26 lbs. Delacour's Langur (Trachypithecus delacouri) is a black and white leaf monkey. Most of their fur is black, but the monkey's white fur makes it look like it's rocking some white bicycle shorts. The biggest males can tip the scales at 23 lbs. Moonrat stands frozen, mouth agape, when suddenly-footsteps approach… And a solitary Black-Backed Jackal (Canis mesomelas) appears on the scene! Without a pack, Jackal cannot hunt the large game in the grasslands and instead hunts for small mammals. Meanwhile, Buffalo looks up from the tall grass they’re grazing on, but only to do their other favorite activity: ruminating. Buffalo dedicates as much as 74% of its active hours to grazing and ruminating. Jackal catches a unique whiff of an unfamiliar critter and approaches frozen Moonrat. Moonrat emits a HISS-PUFF followed by a low roar. But that's not all Moonrat emits. Moonrat emits a defensive spray characterized by the sweet aromatic notes of "rotten onions, ammonia, and stale sweat" (GBIF, n.d.). Buffalo remains undisturbed by the Jackal-Moonrat fray and continues alternating between ruminating and grazing and then grazing and ruminating. Jackal launches forward through the stench, undeterred, Mathias Appel / Wikimedia Commons / CC1.0 March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 84 R1: TUXEDO STYLE From the depths of darkness, Delacour's Langur hears a squishy CRAAAACK!!!! The bones of a juvenile wallaby crack open, and the Tasmanian Devil snuffles as he ravenously gorges on the scavenged roadkill. Fear rushes over Delacour's Langur. Alone on the ground, away from his social groupmates and far from the limestone cliff where he watches as sentry for predators, these unfamiliar sounds are terrifying. Through distant Eucalyptus trees, headlights twinkle. Delacour's Langur shifts position assessing the situation. Sensing an intruder, Tasmanian Devil loud snorts then barks in ownership of his scavenged carcass! Huey / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY 4.0 Headlights come closer, as the driver switches radio stations, searching for a sweet song, eyes darting away from the road. Tonight’s battle takes place late at night along the Arthur Highway of Turrakana / Tasman Peninsula approximately 75 miles, as the car drives, outside Hobart, Tasmania. Here, Tasmanian Devil lumbers briskly in the nighttime. He has become the apex terrestrial predator. On mainland Australia, dingoes outcompeted Thylacines thousands of years ago. More recently, European settlers hunted Thylacines to extinction by the early 1900s. The cracking bones and eating snuffles scare the Langur, but are as a siren song, calling forth another Tasmanian Devil sprinting in to fight for carcass meat. Our combatant Tasmanian Devil explodes into "growls, grunts, hisses, moans, footstamping, whines, and shrieks" (Rose et al. 2017). Meanwhile, amongst the limestone cliffs and broadleaf evergreen forests of northern Viet Nam, a social group of Delacour's Langurs ascended the rocky cliffs at nightbreak to reach a sleeping site and are snoozing safely in the karst. MMMagic translocates a large male Delacour's Langur to Tasmania, he arrives on the ground amongst the shrubberies along the Arthur Highway. Now terrified by the unearthly screams and demon shrieks (that gave the Tasmanian DEVIL its English name), Delacour's Langur bolts to the Eucalyptus grove beyond the field of battle… just as the car turns off the highway down a side road to the ocean. Tasmanian Devil TERRIFIES Delacour’s Langur! Narrated by Katie Hinde. March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 85 CITATIONS Tasmanian Devil vs. Delacour's Langur Zebra vs. White-Faced Capuchin Andersen, G. E., McGregor, H. W., Johnson, C. N., & Jones, M. E. (2020). Activity and social interactions in a wide-ranging specialist scavenger, the Tasmanian devil (Sarcophilus harrisii), revealed by animal-borne video collars. PLoS One, 15(3), e0230216. Caro, Tim. 2016. Zebra Stripes. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/Z/bo248386 30.html. Fahey, B. and A. Kinder 2001. "Sarcophilus harrisii" (On-line), Animal Diversity Web. Accessed January 21, 2025 at https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Sarcophilus_harrisii/ Joubert, Eugene. “The Social Organization and Associated Behaviour in the Hartmann Zebra Equus Zebra Hartmannae Part 2.” Madoqua 1972, no. 6 (1972). https://journals.co.za/doi/abs/10.10520/AJA10115498_11. Harding, L. E. (2011). Trachypithecus delacouri (primates: Cercopithecidae). Mammalian Species, 43(880), 118-128. Long, J. 2009. "Cebus capucinus" (On-line), Animal Diversity Web. Accessed February 04, 2025 at https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Cebus_capucinus/ Hobday, A. J. (2010). Nighttime driver detection distances for Tasmanian fauna: informing speed limits to reduce roadkill. Wildlife Research, 37(4), 265-272. Perry, S. (2011). Social traditions and social learning in capuchin monkeys (Cebus). Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 366, 988–996. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2010.0317 Jones, M. E., Burnett, S., Claridge, A. W., Fancourt, B., Kortner, G., Morris, K., ... & Woinarski, J. (2014). Australia’s surviving marsupial carnivores: threats and conservation. Carnivores of Australia: past, present, and future (AS Glen and C. Dickman, eds). CSIRO Publishing, Collingwood, Australia, 197-240. Wagner, Thomas C., Kenneth Uiseb, and Christina Fischer. 2021. “Rolling Pits of Hartmann’s Mountain Zebra (Zebra Equus Hartmannae) Increase Vegetation Diversity and Landscape Heterogeneity in the Pre‐Namib.” Ecology and Evolution 11 (19): 13036–51. https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.7983. Nadler, T., Quyet, L.K., Rawson, B.M. & Coudrat, C.N.Z. 2020. Trachypithecus delacouri. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2020: e.T22043A17958988. https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2020-2.RLTS.T22043A17 958988.en. Accessed on 21 January 2025. Ribbon Seal vs Tamandua Boveng, P. L., J. L. Bengtson, M. F. Cameron, S. P. Dahle, E. A. Logerwell, J. M. London, J. E. Overland, J. T. Sterling, D. E. Stevenson, B. L. Taylor, and H. L. Ziel. (2013). Status review of the ribbon seal. U.S. Dep. Commer., NOAA Tech. Memo. NMFS AFSC-255, 174 p. Rose, R. K., Pemberton, D. A., Mooney, N. J., & Jones, M. E. (2017). Sarcophilus harrisii (Dasyuromorphia: Dasyuridae). Mammalian Species, 49(942), 1-17. Workman, C. C. (2010). The foraging ecology of the Delacour's langur (Trachypithecus delacouri) in Van Long Nature Reserve, Vietnam (Doctoral dissertation). Wild Yak vs Zorilla Burns, J. J. (1981). Ribbon seal Phoca fasciata Zimmermann, 1783. Pages 89-109 in S. H. Ridgway and R. J. Harrison, editors. Handbook of Marine Mammals. Volume 2: Seals. Academic Press, New York, NY. Aguilar, W. 2003. "Ictonyx striatus" (On-line), Animal Diversity Web. Accessed February 04, 2025 at https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Ictonyx_striatus/ Hayssen, V. (2011). Tamandua tetradactyla (Pilosa: Myrmecophagidae), Mammalian Species, Volume 43: 64–74, https://doi.org/10.1644/875.1 Channing, Alan, and D. T. Rowe-Rowe. “Vocalizations of South African Mustelines.” Zeitschrift Für Tierpsychologie 44, no. 3 (1977): 283–93. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1439-0310.1977.tb00996.x. MMMagazine by Katie Hinde, Margaret Janz, Melanie Beasley, & William Yates David M. Leslie, George B. Schaller, Bos grunniens and Bos mutus (Artiodactyla: Bovidae), Mammalian Species, Issue 836, 27 May 2009, Pages 1–17, https://doi.org/10.1644/836.1 March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 86 CITATIONS Cape Buffalo vs. Moonrat Malayan Tapir vs. Cloud Rat Bennitt, E., Bonyongo, M. C., & Harris, S. (2018). Cape buffalo (Syncerus caffer caffer) social dynamics in a flood-pulsed environment. Behavioral Ecology, 29(1), 93-105. Bryk, J. 2004. "Phloeomys cumingi" (On-line), Animal Diversity Web. Accessed February 07, 2025 at https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Phloeomys_cumingi/ Brozovic, R., Abrams, J. F., Mohamed, A., Wong, S. T., Niedballa, J., Bhagwat, T., ... & Wilting, A. (2018). Effects of forest degradation on the moonrat Echinosorex gymnura in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. Mammalian Biology, 93, 135-143. Gearty, W. 2012. "Tapirus indicus" (On-line), Animal Diversity Web. Accessed February 07, 2025 at https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Tapirus_indicus/ Fishman, B. 2000. "Canis mesomelas" (On-line), Animal Diversity Web. Accessed February 07, 2025 at https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Canis_mesomelas/ Maala, C. P. (2001). Endangered Philippine wildlife species with special reference to the Philippine eagle (Pithecophaga jefferyi) and tamaraw (Bubalus mindorensis). Journal of International Development and Cooperation, 8(1), 1-17. Fox, D. 1999. "Echinosorex gymnura" (On-line), Animal Diversity Web. Accessed February 07, 2025 at https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Echinosorex_gymnura/ Rose, P. E., & Roffe, S. M. (2013). A Case Study of M alayan Tapir (T apirus indicus) Husbandry Practice Across 10 Zoological Collections. Zoo biology, 32(3), 347-356. GBIF. (n.d.). Echinosorex Gymnura (Raffles, 1822). https://www.gbif.org/species/2437114 Suwannaphong, T., Limmun, W., Panyaboriban, S., Wittayarat, M., & Suttidate, N. (2018). Daytime behavior of captive Malayan tapirs at Songkhla Zoo. Walailak Procedia, 2018(2), st120-st120. UNESCO World Heritage Convention. (n.d.). Okavango Delta. UNESCO World Heritage Convention - Okavango Delta. https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1432/ Wilson, Don E., Kristofer M. Helgen, Sing Yun Chin, and B. E. L. D. E. N. Giman. (2006). "Results of small mammal surveys at two sites in planted forest zones, Bintulu, Sarawak." Malayan Nature Journal. Polar Bear vs. Eurasian Water Shrew Champneys, A. (2012). Factors affecting distribution and habitat selection of water shrews Neomys fodiens. Nottingham Trent University (United Kingdom). Winterbach, H. E. K., & Bothma, J. D. P. (1998). Activity patterns of the Cape buffalo Syncerus caffer caffer in the Willem Pretorius Game Reserve, Free State. South African Journal of Wildlife Research-24-month delayed open access, 28(3), 73-81. DeMaster, D. P., & Stirling, I. (1981). Ursus maritimus. Mammalian species, (145), 1-7. Fahey, B. 1999. "Neomys fodiens" (On-line), Animal Diversity Web. Accessed January 20, 2025 at https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Neomys_fodiens/ Kowalski, K., Marciniak, P., Rosiński, G., & Rychlik, L. (2017). Evaluation of the physiological activity of venom from the Eurasian water shrew Neomys fodiens. Frontiers in zoology, 14, 1-13. Narwhal vs. Eastern spotted Skunk Cheeseman A.E., B.P. Tanis, and E.J. Finck. (2020). Quantifying temporal variation in dietary niche to reveal drivers of past population declines. Functional Ecology DOI: 10.1111/1365-2435.13765 Pagano, A. M. (2021). Polar bear foraging behavior. In Ethology and Behavioral Ecology of Sea Otters and Polar Bears (pp. 247-267). Cham: Springer International Publishing. Hunter J.S. (2009) Familiarity breeds contempt: effects of striped skunk color, shape, and abundance on wild carnivore behavior. Behavioral Ecology 20:1315-1322. Stirling, I., Andriashek, D., & Calvert, W. (1993). Habitat preferences of polar bears in the western Canadian Arctic in late winter and spring. Polar Record, 29(168), 13-24. Johnson, C.E. (1921) The "Hand-Stand" Habit of the Spotted Skunk. Journal of Mammalogy 2:87-89. Koski, W. R. (1994). Distribution and numbers of narwhals (Monodon monoceros) in Baffin Bay and Davis Strait. Meddr Grønland, Biosci, 39, 15-40. March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 87 GENETICS SPOTLIGHT this action. Many other gene products contribute to affect the extent of pigment synthesis inside melanosomes. Black and White but NOT red all over Coat color is controlled by pigmentation genes that work together to regulate and produce melanin pigments. Mammals make two types of melanin that are produced in melanocytes: eumelanin and phaeomelanin. In addition, coat color in primates, like many mammals, can vary by sex, age and area of the body. For example, though Delacour’s langur adults are black and white, their offspring are orange until they are about four months old! Eumelanin results in the black coat color of our tuxedo styled mammals. These mammals don’t produce much phaeomelanin (which results in red/ yellow coloration). White coloration, on the other hand, is found where there is no melanin produced. Royle Safaris iNaturalist CC BY-SA 4.0 Melanin pigments don’t just provide color, they may also provide structural support, texture and UV protection. Production of melanin pigments is controlled by melanocyte stimulating hormone, which acts via the MC1R receptor on melanocytes, to increase the synthesis of eumelanin, and by the agouti signaling protein (ASIP) which antagonizes March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 88 GENETICS SPOTLIGHT Coat color can also play a role in camouflage, thermoregulation, or communication. For camouflage, patterns of coloration fall into four general categories, background matching, pattern blending, countershading, and disruptive coloration, that help an animal hide from predators. For communication, color can be a conspicuous sign that a predator should avoid an animal (such as Eastern Spotted Skunk!), but in primates, color markings in fur, particularly around the face, may aid in recognizing other individuals or kin within a species. -Prof. Anne Stone, Arizona State University Reference: Bradley, B. J., & Mundy, N. I. (2008). The primate palette: the evolution of primate coloration. Evolutionary Anthropology: Issues, News, and Reviews: Issues, News, and Reviews, 17(2), 97-111. Molina's Hog-nosed Skunk (Conepatus chinga) / Daniel Stange /iNaturalists / CC SA-BY 4.0 March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 89 Bluesky Banter March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 90 COMBATANT ARTWORK Olivia Pellicer! ko-fi.com/opellisms www.opellisms.com Valeria Pellicer! ko-fi.com/veppart www.vpellicerart.com Charon Henning! Mary Casillas Freisner! ko-fi.com/oddangel ko-fi.com/marycasillas www.charonhenning.com marycasillas.wix.com/paintings March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 91 March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 92 CURRENT BRACKET Round ONE DONE & DUSTED! March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 93 20 March 2025 If you’re learning, you’re winning! Since 2013 can't regulate their own body temperature, they use behavior to beat the heat or survive the cold. They're sensitive enough to change the temperatures they prefer based on humidity! We're back in Suruga Bay, Japan, where Frilled Shark lies in wait in the midwaters. Their eel-like form and fins positioned near the back of their bodies suggest that they may wait for food to come to them, then strike with snake-like precision! Mid-March marks the end of the courtship season for Tuatara, so our competitor is looking for a last chance at romance on Stephens Island in New Zealand. He proudly puffs up and displays his spines, strutting around in a "proud walk" (Gans et al, 1984). But Tuatara's handsome display is cut short as a burst of #MMMagic deposits him into the waters of Suruga Bay! ROUND 2 Roots & Relicts The ONLY ONES Frilled Shark (3) vs. Tuatara (11) The Frilled Shark (Chlamydoselachus anguineus), fresh off the fern-y carnage of round one, is hungry for battle (and squid)! While these sharks spend a lot of time in the ocean depths, especially in warmer summer months, they spend time higher up in the water during cooler months looking for a meal. The Tuatara (Sphenodon punctatus) is one cold-blooded competitor - literally! Because they March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 94 ROUND 2: tOO & RR Saiga (3) vs. Indri (6) During the mating season, male Saigas (Saiga tatarica) produce "nasal roars" to deter rivals and attract females. Like in most lemur species, female Indris (Indri indri) are dominant to males. Males, however, are the ones who scent mark and defend the group's territory. Now swimming, Tuatara's thrashing and splashing attract the attention of the hungry Frilled Shark. Frilled Shark stealth approaches Tuatara, assessing the potential meal, as Frilled Shark stomachs hold prey between 1/3 and 1/2 their body length! With a whip-like strike, Frilled Shark launches forward towards the unsuspecting Tuatara! Frilled Shark's needle-sharp, barbed teeth close around Tuatara's torso...BUT FRILLED SHARK'S TEETH ARE DEFLECTED by Tuatara's PLATED SCALES! Tuatara's own scales and spines scratch at Frilled Shark's mouth!! Frilled Shark RELEASES TUATARA!!!!! TUATARA swims toward the surface of the bay, fleeing the field of battle and a now even HUNGRIER Frilled Shark!! FRILLED SHARK OUTLASTS TUATARA! Narrated by Narrated by Erin Rowland-Schaefer. It remains cold in the Betpak-Dala region of Kazakhstan. Saiga, covered in winter hair that is >75% thicker than its summer coat, is again grazing. Its plant diet has a high-water content, making frequent visits to watering holes unnecessary. Back in eastern Madagascar, Indri is also focused on eating, but her snack of choice right now is... soil? This behavior, which scientists call geophagy, is common in indris, helping them maintain their microbiome and manage the toxins of a leafy diet. Indri is just putting a handful of soil in her mouth when she is, without warning, #MMMagically deposited on the Eurasian steppe. Looking around, Indri finds herself surrounded by a herd of grazing animals. She sees they resemble goats from a Madagascan village, but extra are snouty. #FrontTrunkJunk As in Round 1, Saiga skip-startles and snorfle-woofs at the unexpected newcomer. Indri, uneasy in this treeless landscape and eager to find her group, emits a contact call. In addition to songs, Indri vocalizations include hums, wheezes, and grunts. Saiga shuffles his hooves and snorts. Receiving no reply to her contact call, Indri kicks up dust puffs as she does a series of vertical leaps in search of forest and friends beyond the field of battle. SAIGA OUTLASTS INDRI! Narrated by Lara Durvagich. March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 95 systems, Otter barely notices the Addax standing nearby. BUT LARGE WINGS PASS OVERHEAD!! Aberrantly off course and circling slowly, a marsh harrier (Circus aeruginosus) glides closer above the lone mustelid, strength nearly spent the raptor lands near Spotted-necked Otter. Spotted-necked otters are opportunistic feeders of mammals AND BIRDS with an impressively flexible dietary niche, and OTTER ATTACKS THE FEEBLE RAPTOR! Addax browses on woody scrub brush common on the desert landscape, digesting very slowly to conserve water. The 8x heavier Otter tackles the exhausted raptor, pressing beak and talons into the sand! Mighty Otter bites to the neck of the raptor do rapid damage! The raptor's talons dig deep furrows in sand, then stillness as mortality in the Sahara ends the spring migration of the marsh harrier. Spotted-necked Otter begins to consume his raptor meal, eating some of the feathers that won't be digested and show up in poo to reveal that Otter consumes birds, though more typically waterfowl. Addax steps to the next woody scrub brush, disturbing Otter who drags his meal to go... AND OFF THE FIELD OF BATTLE! ADDAX DISPLACES OTTER! Narrated by Katie Hinde. Addax (1) vs. Spotted-necked Otter (8) Addax (Addax nasomaculatus) rely mostly on moisture from grasses, fobs, and leaves of small bushes for their hydration, rarely encountering free-standing water in their desert habitat. Although routinely catching fish, especially trout, half of Spotted-necked Otter's (Hydrictis maculicollis, previously Lutra maculicollis) meals are crabs and frogs. Less frequent culinary delights include beetles, dragonfly larvae, birds, and rodents. The combatants will meet in the Tin Toumma desert of north central Niger, a part of the greater Sahara Desert region, where the prevalent winds have created epic dune fields. Meanwhile, in his riverine system of KwaZulu-Natal, our combatant Spotted-necked Otter is returning to the water from a trip to the toilet on shore and encounters a familiar otter in his bachelor group and begins chasing him in a chase-tackle-play bout! Spotted-necked Otter rolls with his buddy... rolling his face in the silty riverbank mud... and comes up WITH A FACE FULL OF SAND! #MMMagically Translocated, Spotted-necked Otter gazes across the setting sun dune ecosystem, giving an agitated chirp contact call for his play buddy, but the dune is silent. DEVASTATED at the lack of water, Spotted-necked Otters rarely go further than 30 feet from water March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 96 ROUND 2: tOO & RR Ginkgo & Rhizzo (1) vs. Asian Forest Tortoise (8) Within the 3km radius of the Nuclear Bomb attack on Hiroshima are ~160 Hibakujumoku, meaning "Survivor Trees" or "A-bombed Trees", several of these trees are Ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba) that continue to produce seeds 80 years later as emblems of remembrance and peace. Female Asian Forest Tortoises (Manouria emys) "build a nest mound of leaves and other debris, in which they lay their eggs" similar to crocodiles and some birds and very rare for tortoises and turtles who typically dig into the soil or sand to lay their eggs. Ginkgo and Rhizo (Rhizophagus aggregatum) stand in a temperate broadleaf forest on Mt. Jinfo in SW China as a light rain falls, the temperature hovers a few degrees above freezing. Ginkgo shares carbon with Rhizzo, Rhizzo helps Ginkgo's rainwater and soil nutrient uptake. Meanwhile, in the Tabin Wildlife Reserve in Borneo, the rains are also falling onto the shell of Asian Forest Tortoise but the weather is about 50 degrees warmer in the tropics. Asian Forest Tortoise is braced up on her back legs, stretching her neck to bite down on the delicious taro leaves (Alocasia) she prefers. #MMMagic Translocation has her now standing upright propped against the Ginkgo Tree IN THE FRIGID WEATHER, WELL BELOW TORTOISE'S PREFERENCES!!! Indeed 40 below her Fahrenheit preferences! In her upright position, cold rain is pouring down Tortoise's shell onto her neck and she drops down to the ground! Looking around the base of the massively tall and strong Ginkgo tree, it has no clumps of leaf debris and rotten logs for Tortoise to dig into as her short term burrow or "hide". Slow and steady, Tortoise crawls away to a better hidey-hole in the forest, BEYOND THE FIELD OF BATTLE! GINGKO (& RHIZO) OUTLAST ASIAN FOREST TORTOISE!!! Narrated by Katie Hinde. Wenchi Jin / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0 March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 97 Maned Wolf takes a big yawn that #MMMagics him to a patch of prickly pear cactus, where Peccary is chowing down on perfect ripe fruits. Peccary pauses and stares hard at Wolf. She sways her head, grunts loudly at the interloper then turns her head with mouth agape to show her tusks to make it clear these fruits are hers! Maned Wolf stands tall to sniff at the delicious scent of the perfectly ripe cactus fruit. Peccary pivots toward Maned Wolf, escalating the encounter by swaying her head and giving an explosive tooth-clack by bringing her teeth together HARD! Maned Wolf creeps toward Peccary, lifting his upper lip to expose his undersized carnassials that are perfect for fruit eating. Peccary, at an advantage because she is in possession of the food, responds with a RUN-WHIRL-LUNGE, sending Maned Wolf into a tail-spin, yipping and scurrying with tail between his legs, off the of battle! PECCARY DEFEATS MANED WOLF! Narrated by Tara Chestnut. Maned Wolf (5) VS. Chacoan Peccary (4) Maned Wolf (Chrysocyon brachyurus) has a dispersed social system that is mostly solitary. To communicate, they rely on signals that carry over long distances to avoid conflicts with each other, for example by barking, visual threat displays, and "locus-specific defecation" AKA pooping to define their territory (Klieman 1972). Chacoan Peccary (Parachoerus [Catagonus] wagneri) "usually lives in groups with an average size of 4.5 individuals, although there are reports of solitary individuals" (Camino et al. 2022). Females usually have 1-2 babies per year. Infants are accepted and well tolerated by the entire group, including adult males. It's late afternoon in the Gran Chaco and Peccary is out searching for fruits. It's unusual for a mammal living in hot areas of South America to forage when temps are high but #PeccaryGonnaPeccary. Meanwhile, in Noel Kempff Mercado National Park, Bolivia Maned Wolf is "rested within hollows under tall, dense clumps of bunchgrasses" during the hottest part of the day (Rocha et al. 2017). Chipaguasustudios / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0 March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 98 ROUND 2: tOO & RR approach the unknown object. Coelacanth neutrally buoyant uses very little fin action to maintain her drift course, almost effortlessly maintaining her position & movement in the water column. The deep water is dark & Ringed Seal is not able to rely on VISION... but his sensitive whiskers will identify anything familiar he comes into contact with. Ringed Seal, does a swimming spin-flip. Coelacanth (4) vs Ringed Seal (5) Coelacanths (Latimeria chalumnae) are an extremely old fish group, more closely related to lungfish and tetrapods (4-limbed animals) than other fish. Specifically, Latimeria chalumnae is Critically Endangered and is 1 of 2 Coelacanth species. Ringed Seals (Pusa hispida saimensis) have spent 9500+ years isolated in Lake Saimaa, Finland's largest lake. They are listed as Endangered due to a small population (~400 individuals) and threats of Royle Safaris / iNaturalists / CC BY-SA 4.0 hunting and fishing bycatch combined with impending climate change. WHAM! Gently drifting, neutrally buoyant Coelacanth COLLIDES with powerfully Spin-Turning Ringed Seal! Ricocheting from the collision, Ringed Seal's whiskers had no opportunity to assess a fish bigger than the pike of Lake Saimaa... Coelacanth is drift-hunting off the west coast of Grande Comoro Island between Africa & Madagascar. She hunts the extremely steep lava-formed underwater slopes using her limblike fins to steer. Ringed Seal is in the water of Lake Saimaa near his snow lair. He pops his head out of his breathing hole, inhales, & dives below the ice encrusted surface to hunt for his favorite fish: perch, smelt & ruff. POOF! Ringed Seal is transported via #MMMagic 150m deep in the Indian Ocean! Our 1.5m long, 100kg Ringed Seal is swimming deeper than he ever has in his freshwater lake, pushing his forelimb flippers hard against the water. BUT Ringed Seal is within the dive depth of his ocean-going fellow ringed seals! BUT Coelacanth identifies the seal as “too much car” and instead catches a new ocean drift to continue hunting for the smaller prey she is adapted to eat... BEYOND THE FIELD OF BATTLE! RINGED SEAL OUTLASTS COELECANTH! Narrated by Jessica Light and Katie Hinde. Coelacanth uses passive drifting to hunt the underwater slope. Little light reaches these depths, but Coelacanth eyes have adapted to detect light & color. Our 2m long, 100kg Coelacanth notices a dark, large object above her. Coelacanth drifts closer to the large, dark object. Is it another Coelacanth? Adjusting her forelimb fins to directly March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 99 temporarily protected from harvest. To ensure ecosystem integrity, only males are allowed to be harvested for bait or extraction of blood for use in Alligator Gar (2) vs. Atlantic Horseshoe Crab (10) Horseshoe Crabs (Limulus polyphemus) are commonly observed along beaches of the U.S. Atlantic Coast and Gulf of Mexico in spring when they come on shore to spawn (lay eggs). Spawning aggregations can be very impressive with thousands of animals coming on shore during high tide events. Knowledge of the basic biology and life history of gars and bowfins is growing. Species such as the Alligator Gar (Atractosteus spatula) likely do not spawn every year while others like the Spotted Gar may be capable of spawning more than once per year. biopharmaceuticals. The wind fetch length in March is high, creating large waves and Horseshoe Crab is struggling to navigate with the absence of her telson from R1. A massive wave tumbles her through the #MMMPortal where Horseshoe Crab slowly lofts to the bottom of the calmer waters of the Trinity River estuary. Her legs wriggling in a flurry. Alligator Gar may have the appearance of being sluggish but she is an ambush predator. Lying in wait, the lofting, wriggling Horseshoe Crab grabs Gar's attention. Gar wondering, is that a turtle? WA-BAMMMMMM! CHOMP-CHOMP! Alligator Gar lunges forward like a rocket, lashing her head from side to side with Horseshoe Crab secure in her double rows of teeth. #GARNAGE Horseshoe Crab's straw-colored blood streams down the Trinity River, the copper-based blood turning blue when exposed to oxygen! ALLIGATOR GAR DISINTEGRATES HORSESHOE CRAB! Narrated by Tara Chestnut. The sun has set near the mouth of Galveston Bay, where the Trinity River delta delivers freshwater, nutrients and sediments to the marine ecosystem, monitored by US Geological Survey scientists. Here, Alligator Gar is key to ecosystem stability and function. Alligator Gar is on the river bottom, temporarily free from the pressure of anglers who have to stop fishing 30 mins after sunset. Though her size (350 lbs/159 kg) prevents her from being retained, she is still vulnerable to the stress of catch and release. Meanwhile, Horseshoe Crab is scuttling on the bottom of the Delaware Bay. She is also March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 100 ROUND 2: tOO & RR Puma (2) vs. Quokka (10) As solitary creatures, pumas (Puma concolor) have unique ways of communication. When they visit the same location as a previous puma, they can exhibit a wide variety of behaviors, including caterwauling (a.k.a. SCREAMING), to try and communicate long-distance. While marsupials tend to have smaller brains than other mammals, quokkas (Setonix brachyurus) are as good or BETTER than dogs and cats at spatial learning. Puma slowly walks through the forest, approaching last week's deer carcass site in the Santa Susana Mountains. Puma typically hunts every 1-2 weeks, routinely returning to carcass caches and successful kill sites. Meanwhile, Quokka is grazing amongst the other quokkas and tourists eager for quokka selfies on Rottnest Island in Australia. Bending down to snip some foliage, as she returns upright, Quokka discovers herself magically translocated to the SoCal mountains and sitting at the base of a tree looking out at a pile of leaves with a strong carcass odor, and evidence of many comings and goings of numerous scavengers and predators. Predator-naive from Rottnest Island, Quokka cannot tell the dangers lurking in the shadows and scans her head to look around. #SweetSummerChild Dan M Haddad / iNaturalist / CC BY-SA 4.0 PUMA leaps into the scene landing in front of Quokka! This entrance startles even the Quokka, who panic leaps backwards colliding with the tree trunk even as her pouch muscles loosen, EJECTING THE QUOKKA JOEY FROM QUOKKA'S POUCH! Quokka's joey "flounders on the ground, hissing loudly" (Hayward et al. 2005)! Puma closes in on the 'amuse-bouche' as combatant Quokka hop-sprints away from the field of battle! PUMA POUNCES, QUOKKA BOUNCES! Narrated by Gretchen Andreasen and Katie Hinde. March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 101 CITATIONS Saiga vs. Indri Coelacanth vs Ringed Seal Frey, R., Volodin, I., & Volodina, E. (2007). A nose that roars: anatomical specializations and behavioural features of rutting male saiga. Journal of Anatomy, 211(6), 717-736. Auttila, M., Sinisalo, T., Valtonen, M., Niemi, M., Viljanen, M., Kurkilahti, M. and Kunnasranta, M. (2015), Diet composition and seasonal feeding patterns of a freshwater ringed seal (Pusa hispida saimensis). Mar Mam Sci, 31: 45-65. https://doi.org/10.1111/mms.12133 Pollock, J. I. (1979). Female dominance in Indri indri. Folia Primatologica, 31(1-2), 143-164. Fricke, H., Plante, R. Habitat requirements of the living coelacanth Latimeria chalumnae at grande comore, Indian Ocean. Naturwissenschaften 75, 149–151 (1988). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00405310 Turlybekova, G. K., Turlybekova, A. A., Akhmetova, A. N., & Gorbacheva, D. А. (2017). Ecological features of saiga Saiga tataricaL. var. tatarica of Betpakdaly population of the Central Kazakhstan. Bulletin of the Karaganda university Biology. Medicine. Geography series, 85(1), 40-48. Kunnasranta, M., Hyvärinen, H., Häkkinen, J. et al. Dive types and circadian behaviour patterns of Saimaa ringed sealsPhoca hispida saimensis during the open-water season. Acta Theriol 47, 63–72 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03193567 Borruso, L., Checcucci, A., Torti, V., Correa, F., Sandri, C., Luise, D., ... & Giacoma, C. (2021). I like the way you eat it: lemur (Indri indri) gut mycobiome and geophagy. Microbial Ecology, 82, 215-223. Kunnasranta, M., Niemi, M., Auttila, M., Valtonen, M., Kammonen, J., & Nyman, T. (2021). Sealed in a lake—Biology and conservation of the endangered Saimaa ringed seal: A review. Biological Conservation, 253, 108908. Maretti, G., Sorrentino, V., Finomana, A., Gamba, M., & Giacoma, C. (2010). Not just a pretty song: an overview of the vocal repertoire of Indri indri. Journal of Anthropological Sciences= Rivista Di Antropologia: JASS, 88, 151-165. Lauridsen, H., Pedersen, J.M.H., Ringgaard, S. et al. Buoyancy and hydrostatic balance in a West Indian Ocean coelacanth Latimeria chalumnae. BMC Biol 20, 180 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12915-022-01354-8 Frilled Shark vs. Tuatara Corkery, I., Bell, B. D., & Nelson, N. J. (2014). Behavioral thermoregulation of the tuatara, Sphenodon punctatus, under hydric and digestive constraints. Herpetological Conservation and Biology, 9(1), 29-37. Liukkonen, L., Ayllón, D., Kunnasranta, M., Niemi, M., Nabe-Nielsen, J., Grimm, V., & Nyman, A-M. (2018). Modelling movements of Saimaa ringed seals using an individual-based approach. Ecological Modelling 368, 321-335, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2017.12.002. "Ebert, D.A. and Compagno, L.J.V, (2009) Chlamydoselachus africana, a new species of frilled shark from southern Africa (Chondrichthyes, Hexanchiformes, Chlamydoselachidae). Zootaxa 2173, 1-18 https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.2173.1.1 " Niemi M, Liukkonen L, Koivuniemi M, Auttila M, Rautio A, Kunnasranta M (2019) Winter behavior of Saimaa ringed seals: Non-overlapping core areas as indicators of avoidance in breeding females. PLoS ONE 14(1): e0210266. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0210266 Gans, C., Gillingham, J. C., & Clark, D. L. (1984). Courtship, mating and male combat in tuatara, Sphenodon punctatus. Journal of Herpetology, 18(2), 194-197. Yokoyama, S., & Takashi, T. Adaptive evolution of the African and Indonesian coelacanths to deep-sea environments. Gene 261, 35-42 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1016/S0378-1119(00)00474-1. Tanaka, S., Shiobara, Y., Hioki, S., Abe, H., Nishi, G., Yano, K., & Suzuki, K. (1990). The reproductive biology of the frilled shark, Chlamydoselachus anguineus, from Suruga Bay, Japan. Japanese Journal of Ichthyology, 37(3), 273-291. Yokoyama, S., Zhang, H., Radlwimmer, F.B., & Blow, N.S. Adaptive evolution of color vision of the Comoran coelacanth (Latimeria chalumnae), Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 96 (11) 6279-6284, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.96.11.6279 (1999). MMMagazine by Katie Hinde, Margaret Janz, Melanie Beasley, & William Yates March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 102 CITATIONS Puma vs. Quokka Addax vs. Spotted-necked Otter Allen, M. L., Wang, Y., & Wilmers, C. C. (2016). Exploring the adaptive significance of five types of puma (Puma concolor) vocalizations. The Canadian Field-Naturalist, 130(4), 289-294. Perrin, M. R., & Carugati, C. (2000). Food habits of coexisting Cape clawless otter and spotted-necked otter in the KwaZulu-Natal Drakensberg, South Africa. South African Journal of Wildlife Research-24-month delayed open access, 30(2), 85-92. Bonney, K. R., & Wynne, C. D. L. (2004). Studies of learning and problem solving in two species of Australian marsupials. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 28(6), 583-594. Reed‐Smith, J., Serfass, T., Kihudu, T. S., & Mussa, M. (2014). Preliminary report on the behavior of spotted‐necked otter (Lutra maculicollis, Lichtenstein, 1835) living in a lentic ecosystem. Zoo Biology, 33(2), 121-130. Hayward, M. W., de Tores, P. J., Augee, M. L., & Banks, P. B. (2005). Mortality and survivorship of the quokka (Setonix brachyurus)(Macropodidae: Marsupialia) in the northern jarrah forest of Western Australia. Wildlife Research, 32(8), 715-722. Hummel, J., Steuer, P., Südekum, K. H., Hammer, S., Hammer, C., Streich, W. J., & Clauss, M. (2008). Fluid and particle retention in the digestive tract of the addax antelope (Addax nasomaculatus)—adaptations of a grazing desert ruminant. Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology Part A: Molecular & Integrative Physiology, 149(2), 142-149. Ironside, K. E., Mattson, D. J., Theimer, T., Jansen, B., Holton, B., Arundel, T., ... & Edwards, T. C. (2017). Quantifying animal movement for caching foragers: the path identification index (PII) and cougars, Puma concolor. Movement ecology, 5, 1-17. Krausman, P. R., & Casey, A. L. (2007). Addax nasomaculatus. Mammalian Species, 2007(807), 1-4. Perrin, M. R., and C. Carugati. "Food habits of coexisting Cape clawless otter and spotted-necked otter in the KwaZulu-Natal Drakensberg, South Africa." South African Journal of Wildlife Research-24-month delayed open access 30.2 (2000): 85-92. Chacoan Peccary vs Maned Wolf Bissonette, J.A. 1982. Ecology and Social Behavior of the Collared Peccary in Big Bend National Park, Texas. USDOI National Park Service, Scientific Monograph Series No. 16. https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/science/16.pdf Seri, H., Chammem, M., Silva, S., Rodrigues, M., Khorchani, T., & Ferreira, L. (2018). Assessment of diet composition of free-ranging addax antelopes (Addax nasomaculatus) by the combination of microhistological procedures and n-alkanes and long-chain alcohols as fecal markers. Canadian Journal of Zoology, 96(11), 1284-1289. Camino, M., Thompson, J., Arriaga Velasco-Aceves, P. et al. Less than six generations to save the chacoan peccary. Biodivers Conserv 31, 413–432 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-021-02337-x Handen, C. E., & Benirschke, K. (1991). Giant chacoan peccary: Feeding and social behavior of a captive group in natural habitat. Zoo biology, 10(3), 209-217. Strandberg, R., Klaassen, R. H., Hake, M., & Alerstam, T. (2010). How hazardous is the Sahara Desert crossing for migratory birds? Indications from satellite tracking of raptors. Biology letters, 6(3), 297-300. Kleiman, D. G. (1972). Social behavior of the maned wolf (Chrysocyon brachyurus) and bush dog (Speothos venaticus): a study in contrast. Journal of Mammalogy, 53(4), 791-806. Ginkgo & Rhizzo vs. Asian Forest Tortoise Rocha, L.H.S., L. S. Ferreira, E. M. Venticinque, F. H. G. Rodrigues, R. S. Sousa-Lima. 2017. Temporal and environmental influences on long-distance calling by free-ranging maned wolves (Chrysocyon brachyurus), Journal of Mammalogy 98:302–311, https://doi.org/10.1093/jmammal/gyw171 Høybye-Mortensen, K. (2004). The tortoise Manouria emys emys: behaviour and habitat in the wild (Doctoral dissertation, Syddansk Universitet). Suzuki, M., Kunii, Y., & Kanno, H. (2020). Current status and issues in environmental policy regarding conservation and utilization of A-bombed trees in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Impact, 2020(3), 45-47. March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 103 CITATIONS Alligator Gar vs Horseshoe Crab David, S. R., King, S. M., & Stein, J. A. (2018). Introduction to a special section: angling for dinosaurs—status and future study of the ecology, conservation, and management of ancient fishes. Transactions of the American Fisheries Society, 147(4), 623-625. Smith, N. G., Daugherty, D. J., Brinkman, E. L., Wegener, M. G., Kreiser, B. R., Ferrara, A. M., ... & David, S. R. (2020). Advances in conservation and management of the Alligator Gar: a synthesis of current knowledge and introduction to a special section. North American Journal of Fisheries Management, 40(3), 527-543. Lathrop Jr., R.G., M. Allen and A. Love. 2006. Mapping and Assessing Critical Horseshoe Crab Spawning Habitats of Delaware Bay (White Paper). Center for Remote Sensing & Spatial Analysis, Rutgers University. Accessed March 18, 2025 Strout, N. 2024. US regulators maintain ban on female horseshoe crab harvest in Delaware Bay, Lucena, Z., and Lee, M.T., 2022, Distribution of streamflow, sediment, and nutrients entering Galveston Bay from the Trinity River, Texas, 2016–19: U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Report 2022–5015, 55 Texas Department of Parks & Wildlife. 2025. Alligator Gar Special Restrictions and Reporting,. U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (nd) FWS Focus: Atlantic Horsehoe Crab. Smith, D.R., Brockmann, H., Beekey, M.A. et al. Conservation status of the American horseshoe crab, (Limulus polyphemus): a regional assessment. Rev Fish Biol Fisheries 27, 135–175 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11160-016-9461-y U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. (nd). March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 104 GENETICS SPOTLIGHT genomic data and advanced gene-editing technologies such as CRISPR Cas9, these organizations are contributing to wildlife conservation and species resilience. For example, genome engineers are exploring the use of CRISPR-Cas9 to introduce genetic resistance to white-nose syndrome, a disease that has been decimating bat populations worldwide1. Similarly, CRISPR now allows conservation geneticists to restore lost genetic diversity into populations. Organizations like Revive & Restore are employing genomic technologies to enhance the genetic diversity of endangered species. For example, they have been involved in cloning efforts to increase the genetic diversity of black-footed ferret populations, a species that was twice thought to have gone extinct2. Such advancements provide new opportunities to help Biology Beyond Academia: Exploring Careers in Genetics & Biotechnology Genetics and biotechnology are quickly changing our world, creating exciting new career opportunities beyond the traditional academic setting. As funding cuts continue to afflict academic research, many scientists are now turning to biology careers in industry, government, and non-profit organizations. We briefly outline some of the exciting new fields of research that are most likely to shape the near future, from biotechnology applications in conservation and agriculture to advances in personalized medicine and public health. Biotechnology companies are expanding the real-world applications of biology beyond traditional biomedical research. By utilizing March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 105 GENETICS SPOTLIGHT ecosystems recover and protect global biodiversity. Several non-profit and governmental institutions are offering promising careers in genetics. In wildlife conservation, genetic techniques help monitor animal populations, track genetic diversity, and combat illegal poaching and trafficking through forensic DNA analysis. Organizations use environmental DNA (eDNA) to detect species presence in ecosystems, aiding in habitat protection and biodiversity management. Similarly, genetic surveillance is playing a critical role in public health, enabling the rapid detection of pathogens and their hosts, which helps governments respond swiftly to outbreaks and make informed policy decisions. For example, PulseNet, a national network of public health and food regulatory agency laboratories led by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), uses genetic fingerprinting techniques to identify and track foodborne pathogens such as Escherichia coli, Biotechnology is also revolutionizing agriculture and aquaculture by harnessing genomics to enhance resilience, productivity, and sustainability of crops and livestock. Crops such as drought-tolerant wheat, pest-resistant corn, and heat-adaptive rice to sustain yields in challenging climates are just some examples. In livestock, genetic advancements are reducing susceptibility to diseases like bovine tuberculosis and African swine fever. In fisheries, researchers are improving disease resistance in farmed salmon and developing faster-growing tilapia to meet global seafood demand. Other innovations besides gene editing include soil microbiome enhancements, alternative biofuels, lab grown meats, and precision breeding; just some of many burgeoning technologies shaping a more sustainable and food-secure future. March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 106 GENETICS SPOTLIGHT nature, and many companies are already exploring how species have evolved resistance to diseases like cancer and diabetes or adapted to extreme conditions such as heat and low oxygen. By studying these extraordinary biological solutions, researchers are uncovering new treatments that could revolutionize healthcare and improve quality of life—offering exciting career opportunities at the intersection of genetics, medicine, and evolutionary biology. It's an exciting time to pursue a career in genetics and biotechnology, with numerous opportunities to make meaningful contributions to human health, agriculture, conservation, and our understanding of life itself. Whether you're passionate about protecting ecosystems, improving agriculture, or developing medical innovation, genomics offers impactful new careers beyond academia – which is just one of many paths scientists take to pursue a career in biology. Salmonella, and Shigella. Genomic epidemiologists can identify the origins of foodborne disease outbreaks and detect the presence of bacterial DNA early on. In biomedical research, genomics is transforming healthcare. Doctors and computer scientists are using genetic data to personalize treatments, creating medications tailored specifically for individual patients. For example, patients with certain polymorphisms in the TPMT or NUDT15 genes have difficulty breaking thiopurines, immunosuppressive medications commonly used to treat conditions like acute lymphoblastic leukemia, inflammatory bowel disease, and autoimmune disorders. The accumulation of toxic metabolites resulting from lower enzymatic activity in these patients increases the risk of bone marrow suppression. Healthcare providers can adjust thiopurine dosages according to genetic test results4. But medicine also has much to learn from Lucas R. Moreira & Nicolas Alexandre Colossal Biosciences Further Reading: Martínez-Velázquez, A., Rodríguez-Pérez, M. A., & Simmons, N. B. (2024). Genomic approaches to disease resistance in bat conservation: CRISPR-Cas9 potential in combating white-nose syndrome. Journal of Conservation Genetics, 35(2), 167-181. Black-footed Ferret Project Pulse Net Moradveisi, Borhan; Muwakkit, Samar; Zamani, Fatemeh; Ghaderi, Ebrahim; Mohammadi, Ebrahim; Zgheib, Nathalie K. (2019). ITPA, TPMT, and NUDT15 Genetic Polymorphisms Predict 6-Mercaptopurine Toxicity in Middle Eastern Children With Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. Frontiers in Pharmacology. 10: 916. doi:10.3389/fphar.2019.00916 March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 107 COMBATANT ARTWORK Olivia Pellicer! ko-fi.com/opellisms www.opellisms.com Valeria Pellicer! ko-fi.com/veppart www.vpellicerart.com Charon Henning! Mary Casillas Freisner! ko-fi.com/oddangel ko-fi.com/marycasillas www.charonhenning.com marycasillas.wix.com/paintings March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 108 CURRENT BRACKET March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 109 24 March 2025 If you’re learning, you’re winning! Since 2013 together to the same locations year after year, and populations going to different areas have unique behaviors! While both marine mammals call the icy waters of the North Arctic home, they actually rarely share habitats! Narwhal are typically found in the Greenland sea and Baffin bay, while Ribbon Seals live in the Bering sea. Narwhal has the higher seed, so tonight’s battle takes place in the Northwestern passages. The Narwhal is currently mid-dive. Diving depth for Narwhal differs by populations and season and our male is currently 300 m (or 882 stoats) below the surface! While underwater the Narwhal spins around their axis and makes high frequency buzzing clicks. Tervo et al. (2021) hypothesized spinning widens the echolocation range to find prey. This comes with an energetic cost though, limiting dive durations. ROUND 2 On the other side of North America, the Ribbon Seal just initiated a foraging dive of their own when they are suddenly whisked down alongside the Narwhal. Ribbon seals typically forage at depths of 200 m, and the seal’s lungs quickly collapse under the water pressure! Same/Different Tuxedo Style Ribbon Seal (7) vs. Narwhal (2): Ribbon seals (Histriophoca fasciata) have unique movement out of the water. While most seals galumph with forward undulations, Ribbon seals wiggle side-to-side like a snake. This is effective on their preferred icey haul outs, but not rocks or sand. Narwhal (Monodon monoceros) seasonally migrate over 2,000 km with changes to sea ice. Heide-Jørgensen (2002) found narwhal move Ribbon seals lungs evolved to squeeze down during deep dives, which have been recorded to go near 500 m! Diving mammals rely on high amounts of iron-rich proteins in red blood cells and muscles to store oxygen during dives. Ribbon seals have more red blood cells than any other seals! March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 110 ROUND 2: S/D & TS Both mammals eventually need to find the surface to breathe. This can be dangerous because both species are incapable of breaking through sea ice! Instead they must find natural openings in the ice. Small pores filled with nerve endings in Narwhal’s tusk allow them to sense changes in ocean salinity, which might allow them to find open channels of sea through melting ice floes. Both animals are foraging on borrowed time! The balance of searching and capturing prey while conserving oxygen can be really hard, which is why only 8-14% of foraging dives for Narwhal are successful! But which mammal can hold out longer?!? In this case being larger is better, as the greater body volume gives more capacity for oxygen storage. Narwhal can ultimately stay on foraging dives for well over 20 minutes! The Ribbon Seal meanwhile makes their way to the surface to catch their breath...beyond the field of battle!!! NARWHAL OUTLASTS RIBBON SEAL! Narrated by Brian Tanis. John Clough / iNaturalist / CC BY-SA 4.0 Cape Buffalo (4) vs. Malayan Tapir (5) Cape Buffalo (Syncerus caffer caffer) are social and form herds that may be mixed-sex and age, with a core unit of adult females or bachelors (all males). Pathfinders lead their herd and rely on scents and sounds, though herds demonstrate shared decision-making: members change their body orientation to vote on preferred direction to travel. Little is known about Malayan Tapir (Tapiris indicus) behavior, especially in the wild. They are generally solitary but may form pairs or groups when there is a food shortage. Tonight's battle takes place in Lake Manyara National Park in Tanzania, which has one of the largest densities of mammals in the world. This includes lions (Panthera leo), Buffalo's primary Michael Cameron /Wikimedia Commons / CC1.0 March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 111 Coati (4) vs. Paca (5) Time to do the "frisky-hop"! During courtship, male paca (Cuniculus paca) jump and twist around the female, all while trying to spray her with urine. Once he succeeds, females will usually cooperate with mating. Coatis (Nasua narica) are a social bunch, with females and juveniles less than 2 years old forming social "bands" with as many as 25 individuals. Males temporarily join these bands during mating season, before going back to solitary life. It's another balmy evening in Osa Peninsula of Costa Rica. Coati has caught the sweet scent of ripe figs and is slowly winding its ways up through the branches looking for the perfect bite. In the Brazilian Pantanal, Paca has left her burrow. Her pup trots behind her as she makes her way along a familiar trail. when she suddenly stops short! Paca are creatures of habit and don't like it when their trails change. A new fork has emerged and she goes to move off trail when she finds herself alone among fallen fig fruits in Costa Rica! She snorts with unease at the change in scenery. Above her head, the Coati continues his ambling climb along a thick, strong tree branch. predator, accounting for almost 90% of adult and sub-adult deaths (excluding disease and drought) in the park. Meanwhile, in the Temengor Forest Reserve of northern Malaysia, solitary Tapir approaches the Tersau salt lick, a naturally-occurring deposit of minerals frequented by wild animals (like Tapir) to get essential nutrients to supplement her herbivorous diet. Tapir places her snout into the mud… and is transported by MMMagic to the banks along the Endabash River, where Cape Buffalo is grazing on the periphery of his herd. Unsure of her surroundings, Tapir lets out a squeal followed by a "hiccup" indicating her fear and agitation. Cape Buffalo looks up from a patch of tall grasses to survey the strange black-and-white creature. Cape Buffalo gives a warning snort and then being 4 times more massive than the interloper, starts lumbering at Malayan Tapir. Tapir bolts into the river! Fleeing to water is her common escape tactic against predators. Cape Buffalo, standing carefully back from water's edge, watches the river for Tapir's emergence. Tapir holds her breath, fully submerged, and walks along the river bottom. Tapir surfaces on the far side of the river, and trots further from the field of battle! CAPE BUFFALO INTIMIDATES TAPIR! Narrated by Chloe Josefson. Lindolfo Souto / iNaturalist / CC BY-SA 4.0 March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 112 ROUND 2: S/D & TS Sunda Colugo (3) vs. Paradise Flying Snake (11) Female colugos (Galeopterus variegatus) glide to forage, but males travel greater distances to not only feed but to defend territories and search for mates. Moms carry their babies during gliding, and as the baby gets bigger, gliding distances get shorter. Multiple male Paradise Flying Snakes (Chrysopelea paradisi) will slither in tandem with a receptive female during the courtship process, a tactic that may reduce risks of predation. Tonight we return to the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve, the last remnant of primary rainforest in Singapore, where Colugo camouflage clings to a tree trunk near several branches. When a cacophony of long-tailed macaques (Macaca fascicularis) climb into the tree canopy above her! Meanwhile, in Bako National Park in Sarawak, Borneo, Malaysia Paradise Flying Snake has just captured a gecko and is curling his coils twice around the fighting lizard when Paul Cools / iNatiuralist / CC BY-SA 4.0 Quiet footfalls and low panting fill the air. A dark, wet snout emerges through the brush as a dog scents its quarry - the Paca! Behind the dog, light from a hunter's flashlight floods the base of the tree. Blinded, the Paca freezes. The hunting dog lunges, seizing the Paca by her neck and giving a hard shake. Crack! Poor Paca's neck breaks. The hunter gives a short, sharp whistle. The dog retreats, carrying the limp Paca in its jaws and the two continue on their path, leaving the Coati tucked amongst the tree branches. COATI OUTLIVES PACA! Narrated by Alyson Brokaw. Bryony S / iNaturalist / CC BY-SA 4.0 March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 113 monkeys, loops his back end stationary on the tree and propels his front end upward, releasing the tree branch in a jumping leap to launch his glide away from the tree and beyond the field of battle. Back inthe tree, Colugo uses the monkeys' snake distraction to escape unnoticed around the back of the trunk and higher in the tree. After all... macaques can be a lethal danger to Colugos. SUNDA COLUGO OUTLASTS PARADISE FLYING SNAKE... BARELY. Narrated by Katie Hinde. Wild Yak (3) vs. Mountain Zebra (6) Wild yaks (Bos mutus) like to have friends in high places they're herd animals that once numbered in the millions in the high elevations of Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. Despite almost being driven to extinction in the 1970s by excessive hunting, yaks still prefer to live in herds of tens to hundreds of animals. Reindeer games? Try zebra games! While other zebra species are rarely recorded engaging in play, mountain zebra (Equus zebra) often initiate play by racing or chasing each other. From there, they may rub their nose/body, groom, or play-fight (fighting, now with exaggerated movements). Ben Tsai蔡維哲 / iNaturalist / CC BY-SA 4.0 #MMMagic translocates him and his coiled gecko prey to the wide branch below Colugo! The Paradise Flying Snake continues constricting the gecko for 2-3 minutes, as the gecko's fighting flails grow weaker and weaker. A pair of juvenile macaques are wrestling, chasing in the canopy, leaping down and getting closer to Colugo. Paradise Flying Snake releases the gecko, and slithers to begin eating the gecko head first. The gecko springs up, escaping tonic immobility, and flees down the tree! A curious macaque has discovered Colugo, the monkey begins grabbing at Colugo on the tree trunk. Colugo makes a distressed call at the juvenile monkey and releases one grasping hand from the tree bark… COLUGO PUNCHES THE MONKEY! The other playing juvenile spots the Paradise Flying Snake and alarm calls as the other monkeys gather, also making alarm calls! Paradise Flying Snake, bereft of gecko prey and bothered by screaming Bernard Dupont / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 2.0 March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 114 ROUND 2: S/D & TS Tonight's battle is back in the remote, high-elevation alpine meadows of Chang Tang Reserve. Our large male Wild Yak has gone back to peacefully grazing with his herd after the highly volatile (pun intended) antics of Zorilla in Round 1. Meanwhile, Mountain Zebra finishes his daily dust bath and rolls into a kneeling position. Now that he's right side up, the ground feels much much colder on his knees. What is this squishy green plant material he's in? Mountain Zebra stands up. He sniffs the moss he was just resting on and gives it a tentative nibble. His sharp hooves easily part the moss, but there's no dust underneath, just ice. Mountain Zebra surveys the meadow. Is that a herd of wildebeest? They look a lot more hairy than usual. Alexandr frolov /Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0 Polar Bear (1) vs.Tasmanian Devil (8) Female polar bears (Ursus maritimus) care for their cubs for over 2 years in the wild and routinely cuddle, hold, or support cubs with their bodies to help cubs stay warm. This reduces the energy cost of thermoregulation and allows cubs to use more milk energy for growth and development. "As is typical of most dasyurids, Tasmanian devil (Sarcophilus harrisii) catches and holds small prey with its forepaws. Dead prey is examined tactilely with nose, lips, and the numerous whiskers (facial vibrissae)." (Rose et al. 2017). The wild yak herd continues peacefully grazing. While they have a keen sense of smell, their sense of hearing and sight are...less good. Like Zorilla, Zebra is downwind of the herd. Zebra eyes Wild Yak. The Yak seem more similar to the African buffalo Zebra is used to - maybe it's better to steer clear since bovids of this size seem to be aggressive and belligerent. Just as Zebra starts to trot towards warmer pastures, a rogue domestic yak comes charging onto the scene, with a human herder in hot pursuit! The entire herd of wild yaks high tails it ["when running, the yak carries its tail high up or even over its back" (Rockhill 1895, p266)] " “until visual contact is no longer possible, often over mountain passes or onto distant snowfields" and OFF THE FIELD OF BATTLE. MOUNTAIN ZEBRA OUTLASTS WILD YAK! Narrated by Maura Dasari. In Australia's largest southern island, it's Tasmanian Devil mating season! While hunting prey and scavenging carcasses, Tasmanian Devil is looking for that very special someone to get into an intense face-biting fight that is part of Tasmanian Devil courtship. This courtship behavior makes the Tasmanian Devil vulnerable to an infectious cancer known as Devil Facial Tumor Disease (DFTD) the behaviors of March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 115 Polar Bear has been gluttonously digging into the whale carcass, and is now nibbling when the weirdest squat little...is that a ribbon seal? But it's TROTTING?! Up to the whale carcass!? “courtship” set the stage for DFTD and have caused a 80%-95% crash of the Tasmanian Devil population in most of Tasmania. A tiny natural isthmus and population quarantine fencing has thus far protected the Tasman peninsula Tasmanian devils from facial tumor disease! Combatant Tasmanian Devil is thriving on his eating and mating mission. Used to dominating at a carcass, Tasmanian Devil helps himself to this surf on the turf feast, but positions a bit away from the large Polar Bear. The Polar Bear tolerates the fellow scavenger at the whale carcass too big to cache or defend. Indeed multiple polar bears converge to co-feed on large whale carcasses. Tasmanian Devil ravenously digs into the whale carcass, gorge-feeding on 9 lbs of meat, skin, and blubber (40% of his body mass) making his gustatory excitement noises as he plumps up with a rotund full belly! Now full of food, Tasmanian Devil meanders -running is a bit much this full- to go digest in the peace and safety of his well-hidden den in an abandoned Wombat burrow. POLAR BEAR OUTLASTS TASMANIAN DEVIL! Narrated by Katie Hinde "A tireless runner," for up to 20 km and 8 hours a night, Tasmanian Devil courses a predictable route based on recent food successes! Tonight he searches the cavities and creases of the coastal dunes for little penguin and short-tailed shearwater when #MMMagic translocates Tasmanian Devil to a different rocky shore! The air is redolent with the aromas of massive rotting flesh and Tasmanian Devil trots unerringly toward a whale carcass and our Polar Bear! When last we saw him, Polar Bear had been bitten by the iron-tipped teeth of the Eurasian Water Shrew with venomous saliva that can paralyze frogs from a delivery bite! But Water Shrew's tiny teeth had only plunged into Polar Bear's puffy fur, delivering venomous saliva only superficially and doing no damage! (Even with punctured skin, the blubber layer & large size of the Polar Bear would have made the ursid impervious to Shrew's venom.) Wayne McLean / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 2.0 Check out how scientists are developing a Vaccine to protect Tasmanian Devils from fatal Devil Facial Tumor Disease! Barna Takats / iNaturalist / CC BY-SA 4.0 March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 116 ROUND 2: S/D & TS Meanwhile, in the Simien Mountains of the Ethiopia Highlands, one of the few regions of Africa to routinely get snowfall, our combatant Gelada is grazing and grumbling to his group mates when MMMagic takes him. #MMMagically translocated, Gelada blinks quickly, arriving downslope from #2025MMM Thorold's Deer on the edge of his bachelor group. The lower oxygen of the mountain presents little challenge to the Gelada, who is adapted to higher altitudes. Thorold's Deer (1) vs.Gelada (8) As with most herbivores, Thorold's Deer (Cervus albirostris) spends the vast majority of time feeding, with resting and moving as their other main activities, although males increase their vigilance during the cold season. As with most herbivores, Gelada (Theropithecus gelada) spends the vast majority of time feeding, with resting and moving as their other main activities, with some increases in vigilance during the wet season. Thorold's Deer is foraging on the edge of the Tibetan Plateau in the Gansu Qilianshan National Nature Reserve in Northwest China. Here Thorold's Deer competes with wild and domesticated ungulates while trying to evade brown bears, wolves, and snow leopards. Thorold's Deer, unlike red deer and musk deer, prefers meadowland away from the high-intensity grazing of domestic horses, yaks, sheep, although this area was recently grazed by wild blue sheep that have moved on. Thorold's Deer startles, looking hard at the newly arrived primate- is it a wolf? Is it a threat? Focused on assessing the primate interloper, Thorold's Deer turns his back to the mountain cliff... and the vertically-ambushing snow leopard, that also prefers to hunt prey further from domestic animal grazing and their humans. Gelada avoids the feasting snow leopard and fallen Thorold's Deer! GELADA OUTLASTS THOROLD'S DEER! Narrated by Katie Hinde. Leonard A. Floyd /Wikimedia Commons / CC 1.0 March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 117 have the highest number of endoturbinals recorded in mammals. Unaware of the nearby Sun Bear, or even what a bear is, Aardvark scratch digs into the soil by the mound, flexing his limbs and using his long forearm to loosen soil and pushing it behind him. Sun Bear (2) vs. Aardvark (7) Sun bears (Helarctos malayanus) are smaller than the average bear at 25-65 kg. They have claws adapted for digging and climbing, with bowed legs and inward facing paws that help them arboreally. These traits help sun bear obtain one of their favorite foods: figs! #GrubDigger AND #FigFancier. Aardvarks (Orycteropus afer) are fossorial, meaning they are well-adapted for digging, which is one reason they are the only extant member of their Order. Other members of this group were less fit for the digging life, and this may be part of the reason these populations went extinct. Sun Bear hears Aardvark's digging and leans around the termite mound to see Aardvarks rump sticking up from the hole into the termite mound. While "inoffensive and timid if not bothered"... SUNBEAR IS BOTHERED!!! (Fitzgerald and Krausman 2002). Unaware of the approaching Sun Bear, Aardvark's eyes are closed to avoid getting dirt in them (his long eyelashes stop the debris from getting close). Back in Ulu Segama Forest Reserve, Malaysia, Sun Bear is approaching one side of a termite mound! While he eats a lot of fruit to build up fat reserves for lean times, his long, narrow tongue and mobile snout allow him to eat a lot of termites. Sun Bear's large canine teeth -with flaring zygomatics- make a big bite force for an omnivore his size. This strong bite is for tearing into trees and termite mounds. Combatant Sun Bear's canines are intact, but males often have broken canines as the result of intraspecific fighting. Sun Bear uses his claws and teeth to break the termite mound into a few pieces and quickly eats the termites from the exposed mound. He then sits straight up, grabs a piece of mound with his front paws, and licks termites from the surface of the mounds. Meanwhile, Aardvark is still in Nama-Karoo. Busy with his cute snout to the ground inspecting for ants and other inverts, he zags his way into MMM portal to Ulu Segama and to the OTHER SIDE OF THE TERMITE MOUND FROM SUNBEAR! Aardvark's nose is flat on the ground, sniffing loudly. The "fleshy tentacles" (Kingdon 1971) of his nose are adapted to chemical stimuli and for sensing termites' reaction to his loud sniff. Aardvarks Wat Wongpan / iNaturalist / CC BY-SA 4.0 March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 118 ROUND 2: S/D & TS As Aardvark digs, his nose hairs interlock to prevent soil getting in. Aardvarks tongue flicks into the nest, catching invertebrates to its sticky surface, gobbling them up like a vacuum. In a 3-point stance, Sunbear swipes his powerful claw-tipped paw across at Aardvark's rump, slashing into the Aardvarks thick skin! Aardvark jump-buck-turns and finds himself trapped between the aggressive Sun Bear and the termite mound! Aardvark shifts, steps sideways along the termite mound, and away from Sun Bear. Sun Bear shifts, steps sideways the opposite direction, away from the Aardvark. Aardvark takes one more side shifting step, dropping down on all four feet backing away from the Sun Bear... backing over softer dirt away from the termite mound watching the Sun Bear. Aardvark uses his hindlegs to shovel and flick dirt backward while digging. The webbing on his hind feet makes this easier, flicking sandy soil backwards at a very fast pace. In 10 minutes, Aardvark has a pretty deep escape burrow, getting down to the underground in the soft soil... DIGGING AWAY from the Field of Battle! Sun Bear INTIMIDATES Aardvark! Narrated by Marc Kissel & Katie Hinde. Aardvark stands full height on his hind legs and tail, nearly as heavy as Sun Bear. Aardvark raises his thick-nailed front feet strong from digging. When faced with danger, Aardvark's "can get very tempestuous and aggressive" (Knöthig 2005). Sun Bear also stands on his back legs, readying for battle, shifting weight between his two legs. lynetterudman / iNaturalist / CC BY-SA 4.0 March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 119 CITATIONS Sun Bear vs. Aardvark Coati vs Paca Christiansen, P. (2007). Evolutionary implications of bite mechanics and feeding ecology in bears. Journal of Zoology, 272(4), 423-443. Emmons, L. . 2016. Cuniculus paca. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2016: e.T699A22197347. Gompper, M.E. (1995) Nasua narica. Mammalian Species, (487), 1-10. Kingdon, .I. (1971) East African Mammals. An Atlas of Evolution. Vol. 1. Academic Press,London and New York. Perez, E.M. (1992). Agouti paca. Mammalian Species, (404), 1-7. Knöthig, J. (2005). Biology of the aardvark (Orycteropus afer). Ruprecht-Karls-Universität, Heidelberg, Germany (MSc thesis). Colugo vs. Paradise Flying Snake Meijaard, E. (1998) Ursus (Helarctos) malayanus, the neglected Malayan sun bear. Nederlandsche Commissie voor Internationale Natuurbescherming, 1999. Byrnes, G., Lim, N. T. L., Yeong, C., & Spence, A. J. (2011). Sex differences in the locomotor ecology of a gliding mammal, the Malayan colugo (Galeopterus variegatus). Journal of Mammalogy, 92(2), 444-451. Taylor, W. A., & Skinner, J. D. (2004). Adaptations of the aardvark for survival in the Karoo: a review. Transactions of the Royal Society of South Africa, 59(2), 105-108. Dzulhelmi, M. N., & Abdullah, M. T. (2009). An ethogram construction for the Malayan flying lemur (Galeopterus variegatus) in Bako National Park, Sarawak, Malaysia. Journal of Tropical Biology & Conservation (JTBC), 5. Whittington-Jones, G. M., Bernard, R. T., & Parker, D. M. (2011). Aardvark burrows: a potential resource for animals in arid and semi-arid environments. African Zoology, 46(2), 362-370. Kaiser, H., Lim, J., & Worth, H. (2016). Tangled skeins: a first report of non-captive mating behavior in the Southeast Asian Paradise Flying Snake (Reptilia: Squamata: Colubridae: Chrysopelea paradisi). Journal of Threatened Taxa, 8(2), 8488-8494. Polar Bear vs. Tasmanian Devil Kowalski, K., Marciniak, P., Rosiński, G., & Rychlik, L. (2017). Evaluation of the physiological activity of venom from the Eurasian water shrew Neomys fodiens. Frontiers in Zoology, 14, 1-13. López, L. I., & Mora, J. M. (2021). A failed predation attempt by Chrysopelea paradisi (Serpentes: Colubridae) on Hemidactylus frenatus (Squamata: Gekkonidae) in Borneo, Malaysia. Phyllomedusa: Journal of Herpetology, 20(2), 203-207. Laidre, K. L., Stirling, I., Estes, J. A., Kochnev, A., & Roberts, J. (2018). Historical and potential future importance of large whales as food for polar bears. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, 16(9), 515-524. Socha, J. J. (2006). 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Canadian Journal of Zoology, 102(8), 663-672. by Katie Hinde, Margaret Janz, Melanie Beasley, & William Yates March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 120 CITATIONS Thorold's Deer vs. Gelada Narwhal vs. Ribbon Seal Chiou, K. L., Janiak, M. C., Schneider-Crease, I. A., Sen, S., Ayele, F., Chuma, I. S., ... & Snyder-Mackler, N. (2022). Genomic signatures of high-altitude adaptation and chromosomal polymorphism in geladas. Nature ecology & evolution, 6(5), 630-643. Chambault P., S. B. Blackwell, and M.P. Heide-Jørgensen. 2023. Extremely low seasonal prey capture efficiency in a deep-diving whale, the narwhalBiol. Lett.1920220423. http://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2022.0423 Heide-Jørgensen, M. P., R. Dietz, K. L. Laidre, P Richard, J.Orr, & H. C. Schmidt. 2003. The migratory behaviour of narwhals (Monodon monoceros). Canadian Journal of Zoology, 81(8), 1298-1305. Gosheme, B., & Yihune, M. (2023). Diet composition and diurnal activity patterns of gelada baboon (Theropithecus gelada). African Journal of Ecology, 61(3), 699-705. Kachel, S., Bayrakcısmith, R., Kubanychbekov, Z., Kulenbekov, R., McCarthy, T., Weckworth, B., & Wirsing, A. (2023). Ungulate spatiotemporal responses to contrasting predation risk from wolves and snow leopards. Journal of Animal Ecology, 92(1), 142-157. Kooyman, G.L. and P. J. Ponganis. (1998). THE PHYSIOLOGICAL BASIS OF DIVING TO DEPTH: Birds and Mammals. Annu. Rev. Physiol. 1998. 60:19–32 Lenfant, C., K. Johansen, & J.D. Torrence. 1970. Gas transport and oxygen storage capacity in some pinnipeds and the sea otter. Respiration Physiology 9:277-286. https://doi.org/10.1016/0034-5687(70)90076-9 Li, B., Lin, G., Zhao, X., Su, J., & Zhang, T. (2014). Diurnal time budgets and behavioral rhythms of white-lipped deer Cervus albirostris in the Qilian Mountains of Qinghai, China. Pakistan Journal of Zoology, 46(6). Tervo, O. M., S. Ditlevsen, M. C. Ngo, N. H. Nielsen, S. B. Blackwell, T. M. Williams, M. P. Heide-Jørgensen. (2021). Hunting by the Stroke: How Foraging Drives Diving Behavior and Locomotion of East-Greenland Narwhals (Monodon monoceros). Front. Mar. Sci. Volume 7 - 2020 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2020.596469 Xu, K., Xiao, W., Hu, D., Holyoak, M., Ji, C., Zhang, J., ... & Xiao, Z. (2024). Effects of Livestock Grazing on Spatiotemporal Interactions Between Snow Leopards and Ungulate Prey. Integrative Zoology. Watt, C. A., Orr, J. R., Heide-Jørgensen, M. P., Nielsen, N. H., & Ferguson, S. H. (2015). Differences in dive behaviour among the world’s three narwhal Monodon monoceros populations correspond with dietary differences. Marine Ecology Progress Series, 525, 273-285. Yak vs. Zebra Harris R.B. 2008. Wildlife conservation in China: preserving the habitat of China's Wild West. M. E. Sharpe. Armonk, NY Blanford W.T. 1888. The fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma. Mammalia. Taylor and Francis. London, United Kingdom. Bower H. 1894. Diary of a journey across Tibet. Rivington, Percival and Company. London, United Kingdom. Penzhorn, B. L. “Equus Zebra.” Mammalian Species, no. 314 (June 30, 1988): 1–7. https://doi.org/10.2307/3504156. Rockhill W.W. 1895. Big game of Mongolia and Tibet. 225–277. in Hunting in many lands. Roosevelt T.R. Grinnell G.B.. Harper & Brothers. Publishers, New York. Wiener G. Han J. Long R.. 2003. The yak. 2nd ed. Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, Food and Agriculture Organization. Bangkok, Thailand. March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 121 CITATIONS Cape Buffalo vs. Malayan Tapir Gearty, W. 2012. "Tapirus indicus" (On-line), Animal Diversity Web. Accessed February 07, 2025 at https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Tapirus_indicus/ Prins, H. and Prins, H.H., 1996. Ecology and behaviour of the African buffalo: social inequality and decision making (Vol. 1). Springer Science & Business Media. Gilmore, M., 2007. Tapir behavior: An examination of activity patterns, mother-young interactions, spatial use, and environmental effects in captivity on two species (Tapirus indicus and Tapirus bairdii). Oklahoma State University. Prins, H., G. Iason. 1989. Dangerous lions and nonchalant buffalo. Behaviour, 108: 262-296. Tawa, Y., Sah, S.A.M. and Kohshima, S., 2021. Salt-lick use by wild Malayan tapirs (Tapirus indicus): behavior and social interactions at salt licks. European Journal of Wildlife Research, 67, pp.1-9. Ng, C. 2015. "Syncerus caffer" (On-line), Animal Diversity Web. Accessed March 2025 at https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Syncerus_caffer/ UNESCO. (n.d.). Lake Manyara - Man and the Biosphere Programme (MAB). https://www.unesco.org/en/mab/lake-manyara Owen-Smith, N. and Mills, M.G.L., 2008. Shifting prey selection generates contrasting herbivore dynamics within a large‐mammal predator–prey web. Ecology, 89(4), pp.1120-1133. March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 122 GENETICS SPOTLIGHT So you think you want to be a geneticist? Great career choice! What is the best way to train for this? In high school, not surprisingly, science and math classes are helpful to get a good basic background and prepare for college. In addition, many high schools offer courses in computer programming (we often use bash, python and R for writing scripts to analyze DNA sequence data). Science clubs can also offer ways to learn more about genetics. In college, several majors can incorporate genetics, including biology, biochemistry, ecology, biomedical sciences and even anthropology! Many students begin with Biology 101 followed by genetics (usually a sophomore or junior level class). March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 123 GENETICS SPOTLIGHT We also recommend getting involved in research by joining a lab. To do this, explore faculty websites to see what interests you. Once you have identified some labs that do research that interests you, set up a meeting with the principal investigators (PIs) of those labs or stop by their office hours to chat (we don’t bite!). Getting involved in research early in college, or soon after transferring from community college, can give you time to build skills “from scratch” to more advanced skills. And spending that time involved in a lab over multiple school terms can give you a fuller picture of genetics research and how you like it. If you do indeed this is a good fit for you, you can often work on an independent project your senior year. Your research mentor can also give perspective and advice about graduate school, medical school or job opportunities and help you network with others in the field. -Professor Anne Stone Arizona State University March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 124 BLUESKY BANTER March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 125 COMBATANT ARTWORK Olivia Pellicer! ko-fi.com/opellisms www.opellisms.com Valeria Pellicer! ko-fi.com/veppart www.vpellicerart.com Charon Henning! Mary Casillas Freisner! ko-fi.com/oddangel ko-fi.com/marycasillas www.charonhenning.com marycasillas.wix.com/paintings March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 126 CURRENT BRACKET If your OFFICIAL bracket is BUSTED (your champion was eliminated in the first 2 rounds), swing over to the LibGuide and print out a Busted Bracketeers Bracket for a do-over starting with the Sweet Sixteen. Cheer your new chosen Champion & keep learning through to the final round of March Mammal Madness! Big Thanks to Will Nickley, OSU for the Busted Bracketeers Bracket! March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 127 26 March 2025 If you’re learning, you’re winning! Since 2013 The afternoon sun filters through the Costa Rican forest as we find our Coati once again picking their way through the gnarled roots of a large fig tree. Over in Ethiopia, our Gelada is pacing the edge of a large barley field. Agricultural expansion near protected areas has led to increased human-gelada conflicts. A pair of human guards watch the Gelada carefully, when suddenly the Gelada is magicked away. Used to a cooler, high elevation climate, the thick, humid Costa Rican air is uncomfortable for our Gelada. He carefully ambles into the shade of a nearby fig tree, close to where our Coati forages. As the Gelada picks through the limited grass offerings of the tropical forest, an ocelot trots into view. Used to watching Ethiopian wolves hunt rodents in their midst, the Gelada ignores the small cat. The cat pauses, their elegant striped tail twitching as they lower their body to the ground in a crouch. Turning, the Coati stares down the cat, nervously shuffling as it tries to back up and away from the predator.The ocelot launches forward. Limbs flail as the Coati and ocelot roll and scramble across the dirt floor. CRUNCH! Despite the Coati's large claws, the ocelot manages to land a killing bite to the back of the neck. Dragging the dead Coati between its front legs, the ocelot waddles off with their prize Gelada continues to pick through the grass, unimpressed. GELADA OUTLIVES COATI! Narrated by Alyson Brokaw. SWEET SIXTEEN Coati (3) vs. 8th seed Gelada (8): When geladas (Theropithecus gelada) yawn, they show off an impressive set of thick canines, accompanied by a loud yawning noise. That yawn noise is contagious between gelada individuals - just like yawns in humans! Many mammals love to roll in smelly things, and coati (Nasua narica) are no exception. Captive coati have been known to rub lemons and other citrus on their fur, and free-ranged coatis have been caught anointing themselves with 4-day-old tayra poop! March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 128 Sweet Sixteen Tonight, we find Narwhal in the North Water Polynya in the northern Baffin Bay region of the Arctic. Narwhal swims near the surface, his tusk closely pursuing a single Arctic char (Salvelinus alpinus). The function of Narwhal’s tusk (actually, a long, spiraled tooth!) is unclear, but very recent work shows that they are used in prey capture and in “exploration and likely play” (O’Corry-Crowe et al. 2025). Narwhal's fishy playmate makes a quick escape by rapidly swimming in the opposite direction. Narwhal plunges deeper into the Bay Narwhal (2) vs. Mountain Zebra (6): Narwal (Monodon monoceros) are physiologically adapted for icy waters with key diving muscles having high amounts of slow-twitch oxidative fibers that allow for endurance and myoglobin that allows for prolonged diving Their adaptations leave them with little physiological flexibility to adjust swimming and diving behavior in response to rising ocean temperatures and restricts them to specific ecological niches that are vulnerable to the effects of climate change. Mountain Zebra (Equus zebra) numbers are increasing, though they’re still listed as vulnerable by IUCN due to habitat loss/encroachment, hunting and trapping, and drought. Zebra have long been threatened with the first hunting ban in 1742, and populations nearing extinction in early 1900’s. In the grasslands of the Mountain Zebra National Park in South Africa, Zebra has just finished grazing for grasses and is at a watering hole for his daily drink of water. He takes a few steps into March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 129 the water. But the water is much colder than Zebra was expecting. MMMagic has translocated this odd-toed ungulate to the open waters of Baffin Bay, where sea ice is reaching its maximum coverage this time of year. Zebra’s legs “stride powerfully underwater” (Stone 2008) as he attempts to swim to land, which he assumes would be surely upstream… but where? As Narwhal returns from the depths, he spots Addax (1) vs. Chacoan Peccary (4) Chacoan Peccary (Parachoerus [Catagonus] wagneri) is vulnerable to the trifecta of rapid deforestation, competition with cattle, and pneumonia, which infants are particularly vulnerable to. The impenetrable nature of the Chaco thorn-scrub forests makes assessing population status difficult. Addax (Addax nasomaculatus) was widespread and abundant across the dunes and gravel plains of the Sahara, but suffered catastrophic declines due to unsustainable hunting, habitat degradation, competition with domestic livestock, regional insecurity and impacts of oil exploration. something strange moving at the surface above. Narwhal’s laterally-oriented, smaller optic nerve canals mean that he likely has reduced depth perception but a wider field of view (monocular vision). Addax is in Djebil National Park, Tunisia, where it was reintroduced to a large fenced area of the park to exclude domestic livestock. The reintroduction made possible by zoos all over the world that are part of Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) Species Survival Plan (SSP). Addax is engaged in "high intensity resting" aka sleeping, in the prone position, head tucked against side with eyes closed. Meanwhile, at the Proyecto Taguá in the central Chaco of Paraguay, Peccary is also in a large conservation enclosure. She is resting with her herd in the shade with her new infants! Peccary leans back for a dust bath... when the #MMMPortal opens! Addax alerts immediately, he scrambles to stand, stomps his foot on the ground, and gives a loud BLEAT to get Peccary’s attention. Peccary stands and stares, giving a "repetitive huff whoof" (Packard et al. 2014). Addax assesses this potential threat by facing his opponent and scent marking. Hold on, let's give Addax a few seconds... 21 seconds (plus or minus 13 seconds) as the LAW OF URINATION states, all mammals empty their bladders over the same amount of time! Though many mammals exhibit some degree of the mammalian diving reflex (or response), it is much stronger in aquatic mammals like Narwhal than terrestrial species. This physiological reflex is triggered by submersion in cold water and likely helps preserve oxygen stores. Zebra grows sluggish as the blood vessels in his legs constrict to redirect blood towards core organs. His legs become tired as his muscles run out of available energy after shivering in hopes of producing body heat (thermogenesis). Narwhal's large, hollow horn is aimed at Zebra, who is treading water with greater and greater difficulty... until... Zebra sinks below the icy water's surface... forever. Cold-water drowning can happen in minutes in the Arctic Sea: "Thermal conductivity of water is 20 to 25 times that of air, so a body will lose heat approximately three times faster in water than in air." (Rolf & Gallagher 2018). Narwhal follows another Arctic char, flushing it to the surface only to be snatched by a glaucous gull (Larus hyperboreus). NARWHAL OUTLASTS ZEBRA! Narrated by Chloe Josefson and Brian Tanis. March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 130 Sweet Sixteen The strong aroma of dominant male Addax urine fills the air. Peccary’s olfaction (sense of smell) is well developed and "scent alone causes alarm and fright" (Bissonette 1982). Peccary flees with "mane and dorsal bristles fully erected, scent gland exposed" (Bissonette 1982). She bounds "with leaps in excess of 3m (10 ft) in length" to a patch of woody shrubs in search of her young, off the field of battle (Bissonette 1982)!!! Leaving Addax in the aroma of her musk. ADDAX ELIMINATES PECCARY! Narrated by Tara Chestnut. Sun Bear (1) vs. Sunda Colugo (3) While they don't have many predators, sun bears (Helarctos malayanus) are poached by humans, which makes it risky for them to use trails near agricultural lands. Colugos (Galeopterus variegatus) can survive in fragmented landscapes, but their dwindling natural habitats need to be properly managed for the species to persist and they’re at risk of vehicle collisions when they glide across roadways. Sun Bear lumbers in the forest arriving at a preferred fig tree. Using his excellent climbing skills, Sun Bear hauls himself into the tree, leaving conspicuous claw marks that scientists use to discern their presence in the ecosystem. Back in Bukit Timah Nature Reserve, Colugo is again camouflage clinging to a tree trunk, having slipped away from macaques, when #MMMagic translocates her clinging in camouflage to Sun Bear's fig tree. March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 131 Sun Bear has been resting with his belly on a tree branch, with his legs hanging down, but then he uses his right paw to reach some figs, plopping them into his mouth. One name for him in Sumatra is 'Bagindo nan tinggih' (he who likes to sit high). Colugo sends an ultrasound call to attempt to communicate with any nearby colugos...an ability discovered by researchers studying bats and bat ultrasound calls! MAYDAY MAYDAY MAYDAY!!! Colugo's air cushion is partially compromised by her torn patagium, letting air flow through her body parachute!! In turbulence and limited maneuverability, Colugo glide-careens through the canopy, small blood droplets splattering.... Colugo manages to land in a soft cushion of tree leaves and supple branches... beyond the field of battle! SUN BEAR DEFEATS COLUGO! Narrated by Marc Kissel & Katie Hinde. Sun Bear begins to climb down, only a few feet from Colugo! His ability to bend his foot back and put weight on the outside of foot, plus a well developed tibialis cranialis, has made him one of the best climbers among the bears. He climb-steps with his back foot...digging claws into the tree trunk... one claw impaling Colugo's patagium to the tree trunk! Colugo releases the tree flailing, screaming, striking, still pinned to the tree by a bear claw through her patagium! Sun Bear lifts his foot, freeing Colugo who starts falling....PFFFFT!!! Colugo deploys patagium in glide position! Ginkgo (1) and Rhizzo vs. Ringed Seal (5) Using models of future climate impacts, researchers anticipate that the current habitat for Ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba) will shift in the coming years, and that areas in the southern edge of Ginkgo's range may experience significant habitat fragmentation. This increased fragmentation, or breaking up of habitat, means that it will be harder for Ginkgo trees to exchange genes in reproduction and may lead to the species becoming less diverse over time. In the 1980s, researchers determined that "approximately 70% of [Saimaa ringed seal] pups drowned each year after becoming entangled in gill nets," in Lake Saimaa, Finland (Bell et al., 2008). New regulations banned the use of these nets from April to June and have generally been successful in protecting these endangered seals. According to locals, the main threats to the Saimaa Ringed Seal (Pusa hispida saimensis) are summer residents of the region, who sometimes violate regulations to catch large fish. Ginkgo shifts slightly in a soft breeze on the mountainside broadleaf forest on Mt. Jinfo in SW China. Below ground, Rhizzo (Rhizophagus aggregatum) plays host to a number of microorganisms, including beneficial bacteria (endosymbionts). simchoonheok / iNaturalist / CC BY-SA 4.0 March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 132 Sweet Sixteen Alligator Gar (2) vs. Frilled Shark (3) While adult Alligator Gars (Atractosteus spatula) have few predators, humans are their biggest threat. Loss of river-floodplain spawning habitat and overfishing have led to a drastically reduced range, smaller population sizes, and local extinctions. Frilled Sharks (Chlamydoselachus anguineus) are not often encountered by humans, however, they are occasionally taken as bycatch in deep-sea commercial trawls and longlines. They're currently considered Least Concern for Extinction. On the rocky shore of Lake Saimaa, Ringed Seal drags himself up out of the water - not onto ice, but onto land! Unlike other seals, who use ice for their spring moult, Saimaa Ringed Seals often return to the same place on land each year to shed their old fur. Using his front flippers to pull himself forward, Ringed Seal lumbers clumsily onto the rocky shore. While many other seal species haul out in large groups, Saimaa Ringed Seals are less social, and tend to haul out alone or in smaller groups. Suddenly, Ringed Seal feels the texture of the ground shift beneath him. Instead of rough rock, he now feels soil, roots, and plant material! The Trinity River empties into the Gulf Coast, and this productive ecosystem is home to Alligator Gars and other apex predators, including several shark species. (Livernois et al. 2024) The gar is no stranger to its cartilaginous counterparts. Meanwhile, in Suruga Bay, Japan, Frilled Shark has evaded deep-sea trawlers and moved into shallower water in search of squid. While swimming higher in the water column, a burst of #MMMagic warps this living fossil on a shark trek to Galveston Bay! Frilled Shark gets her bearings through the murky estuarine waters of the bay, slithering eel-like until she sees a large log just below the surface. WAIT, that's no log… #MMMagic has translocated Ringed Seal to the Chinese mountainside forest, near where Ginkgo and Rhizzo stand together! While this environment isn't exactly completely foreign to Ringed Seal, he shifts around and notices that he is no longer near the large lake he calls home. His flippers scrape against the soil as he shifts against Ginkgo's trunk. Ahhhhhh... The rough texture of Ginkgo's bark feels AMAZING on Ringed Seal's moulting skin, scraping off fur and dead skin. SCRITCH SCRITCH SCRITCH- Ringed Seal rolls against the impervious Ginkgo. Ringed seal urinates, releasing nitrogen and other nutrients into the soil, and then galumphs down the hillside searching for freshwater... BEYOND THE FIELD OF BATTLE! GINKGO AND RHIZZO OUTLAST RINGED SEAL! Narrated by Erin Rowland-Schaefer. Alligator Gar catches a glimpse of what appears to be a giant eel swimming her way. The gar paddles her pectoral fins, slowly pivoting for a better look at this bizarre visitor. Frilled Sharks can eat prey nearly 1/2 their body length, and this living fossil is hungry! A relatively weak swimmer, Frilled Shark makes a stealth approach toward the lumbering Alligator Gar. March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 133 Alligator Gar turns just in time to see the serpentine shark swimming directly for its flank, Frilled Shark's toothy mouth agape! Frilled Shark's rows of needle-sharp teeth clamp down on Alligator Gar's side! she's actually flexible. Alligator Gar GRABS Frilled Shark with her DOUBLE-ROW of conical sharp teeth and Frilled Shark has no armor! Alligator Gar's teeth sink in to the sharks sand-papery, scaly skin. Alligator Gar begins her characteristic quick open-close jaw movements shimmying Frilled Shark into position to be swallowed head first. Despite her giant gape and multi-barbed teeth so great at jigging squid, Frilled Shark can't penetrate Alligator Gar's armored scales (basically covered in tooth enamel)! With a thrust of her paddle-like tail, Alligator Gar bursts forward, while Frilled Shark slides down the gar's body, teeth scraping but not gripping…until reaching gar's pelvic fin, a weaker spot! Frilled Shark's teeth tear through the fellow living fossil's fin turning it to ribbons, a small pulse of blood clouds the water around the battle. As Alligator Gar begins to swallow Frilled Shark, Gar realizes this prey is too large to consume! Alligator Gar releases the mortally wounded chondrichthyan. Lacerated, Frilled Shark takes her final swim down to the bottom of the delta. Alligator Gar, still hungry, is the last of these two living fossils that remains... living in 2025 MMM. Alligator Gar DEFEATS Frilled Shark! Narration by Solomon David. Gar curves her body nearly 180 degrees, Alligator Gar's armored scales make her SEEM rigid, but Travisbritt / iNaturalist / CC BY-SA 4.0 March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 134 Sweet Sixteen From a standstill, Puma LEAPS 30 feet to reach the tasty-looking Saiga. Saiga turns to run as Puma soars through the air. Adult Saiga can reach speeds of up to 50 miles per hour! #SpeedySnoot BUT the Californian landscape is rockier and more uneven than the steppes Saiga is used to, and he stumbles! In an instant, Puma is on top of Saiga, clawing at his head and shoulders, "causing hemorrhaging in the muscle tissue" (Alt and Eckert 2017). Saiga throws his head back! His 16-inch-long horns arc through the air but do not gouge or dislodge Puma, whose "well-developed forelimbs and protracted claws" let him tightly grasp his prey (Alt and Eckert 2017)! Puma BITES Saiga at the back of the neck, SNAPPING the vertebrae with sharp 2-inch canine teeth, and Saiga collapses. While pumas in North America eat more than 125 species, our Puma may be the first to dine on Saiga, entering the thoracic cavity through a wound that "almost looks knife-like" (Alt and Eckert 2017). "Cougars typically select the nutritious thoracic organs, diaphragm, and liver for consumption first, followed by other abdominal organs, fats, the rib cage, and muscle tissues" (Murphy et al 2010). #ProteinLoading PUMA DISEMBOWELS SAIGA! Narrated by Lara Durgavich. Puma (2) vs. Saiga (3) Some Western US states allow sport hunting of pumas (Puma concolor), but a 2020 analysis found this did not accomplish stated management goals of reducing problematic puma-human encounters and predation on domestic livestock. Near urban areas, humans have direct and indirect impacts on puma populations. In addition to highway collisions like the one that led to puma P-22's death in 2022, habitat fragmentation reduces genetic diversity. While their recent Royle Safaris / iNaturalists / CC BY-SA 4.0 population rebound is a conservation win, saigas (Saiga tatarica) in Kazakhstan compete with livestock farmers for land and resources. Poaching, driven in part by the use of saiga horn in traditional Chinese medicine, also remains a threat. In the Santa Susana Mountains in southern California, traditional home of the Chumash people, Puma is "scraping," using his hind feet to create a small mound of dirt and leaves that he then urinates on. Pumas use scrape marks to communicate and mark home ranges. Meanwhile, on the open Kazakh landscape, Saiga mills among his herd, still snoofling. Saiga's gnarly nose "is highly specialized, adapted to remove dust from the air they breathe" (Mullineaux et al 2024). But it's #MMMagic time and Saiga is tranlocated mid-inhalation to Southern California, landing just 25 feet away from scraping Puma! Saiga skip-startles and stares, unfamiliar with the sight of a big cat like Puma (tigers disappeared from Kazakhstan in the 1950s, although 2 were recently reintroduced in a Kazakh nature reserve). Puma, on the other hand, knows a potential meal when he sees one. Polar Bear (1) vs. Cape Buffalo (4) The Polar Bear (Ursus maritimus) is uniquely adapted to life on the ice, the global warming climate crisis is quickly deteriorating the sea ice on which the Polar Bear and numerous other species rely. The Cape Buffalo (Syncerus caffer caffer) "is the March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 135 largest and most massive bovid of the African continent" (Morens et al. 2011). Across its African distribution, 80% of the Cape Buffalo population died during the rinderpest epidemic of 1896, now eradicated thanks to vaccines! As one researcher stated in their #OverlyHonestMethods about their study on anti-predator behavior in the bovidae: "Though numerous, Cape buffalo Syncerus caffer were not approached on foot in the interests of completing the study" (Caro, 1994). requirements. After quickly assessing for lions in ambush- he can outrun them if he gets a headstartCape Buffalo lowers his head, dropping his wide mouth to the water... to be #MMMagically translocated to the High Arctic sea ice ABOUT TO DRINK SALT WATER! The edge of the ice begins to crumble under the heavy front-end weight of the Cape Buffalo, and the 2000 lb herbivore backs up blinking in surprise that he is now in the Arctic. Although cold, the open landscape is reassuring to the Cape Buffalo. At Lake Manyara National Park in Tanzania, his greatest source of mortality are cooperative hunting attacks from lions in habitats that provide ambush cover. Two hundred feet away, a 1700lb Polar Bear slips into the water between chunks of sea ice... and begins an "aquatic stalk" toward the Cape Buffalo. After several months prioritizing still-hunting at breathing holes, Polar Bear sniffs natal lairs of any seals giving birth approaching the April birth peak or hauled out seals to stalk hunt. Meanwhile, in Lake Manyara National Park in Tanzania, Cape Buffalo approaches the river, to drink some of the nearly 12 gallons of water he needs, drinking every day or every other day to meet his hydration Safaritravelplus / Wikimedia Commons / CC 1.0 March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 136 Sweet Sixteen Cape Buffalo remains thirsty, and turns his back to the water. Cape Buffalo uses his wide front hooves to gouge at the frozen ice... most chunks have low salt content due to the freezing process creating brine pockets. Polar Bear swims below the ice, surfacing through a gap to breathe, looks at Cape Buffalo, and dives again. Polar Bear has such intense control that he surfaces, breathes, raises his head slightly to look, and submerges "without making a ripple in the water." (Stirling 1974). The Bear swims closer... closer... closer... nape, immersing the artiodactyl completely! Polar Bear and Cape Buffalo struggle, parts of each animal appearing alternately on the surface. Cape Buffalo is tiring under the onslaught in the cold, bleating out a death-bellow when Polar Bear grips the Cape Buffalo's “neck from below as polar bear dispatches his prey within about a minute” (Stempniewicz et al. 2021). Polar Bear hauls Cape Buffalo toward a submerged chunk of ice, and stands holding the carcass down with front legs, ripping chunks of meat from his fallen foe. POLAR BEAR CONSUMES CAPE BUFFALO! Narrated by Katie Hinde. FWOOSH!!! Polar Bear bursts from the arctic waters surging toward Cape Buffalo! Recognizing the sound of an aggressive territorial hippopotamus attacking from the water behind him, Cape Buffalo bolts without even looking, quickly getting to TWICE the speed of the charging Polar Bear! Slowing down when feeling safely clear from the water, Cape Buffalo turns to see THE STILL STALKING POLAR BEAR! SubSahara Africa's paleobear Agriotherium africanum went extinct 2 million years ago, but Cape Buffalo perceives the predatory intent STRANGER DANGER and spins to run away... but the slope of the ice dips into the arctic waters! Cape Buffalo is a mighty swimmer…but Polar Bear is an even more adept swimmer in these arctic waters! Polar Bear vs. Cape Buffalo Polar Bear reaches his prey and grasps the Cape Buffalo's rump, sinking claws into the artiodactyl Polar Bear climbs onto the Cape Buffalo, using his "weight to submerge the prey so that only the latter’s head and neck are still visible above the water" (Stempniewicz et al. 2021). Then with his teeth, Polar Bear grabs the Cape Buffalo by the Stirling, I. (1974). Midsummer observations on the behavior of wild polar bears (Ursus maritimus). Canadian Journal of Zoology, 52(9), 1191-1198. Caro, T. M. (1994). Ungulate antipredator behaviour: preliminary and comparative data from African bovids. Behaviour, 189-228. 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Academic forensic pathology, 8(1), 64-82. Mullineaux, S. T., McKinley, J. M., Marks, N. J., Doherty, R., & Scantlebury, D. M. (2024). A nose for trouble: ecotoxicological implications for climate change and disease in Saiga antelope (S. t. tatarica). Environmental Geochemistry and Health, 46(3), 93. Williams, T.M., Noren, S.R. and Glenn, M., 2011. Extreme physiological adaptations as predictors of climate‐change sensitivity in the narwhal, Monodon monoceros. Marine Mammal Science, 27(2), pp.334-349. Murphy, K., Ruth, T. K., Hornocker, M., & Negri, S. (2010). Diet and prey selection of a perfect predator. Cougar ecology and conservation, 119. Ginkgo and Rhizzo vs. Ringed Seal Bell, S., Hampshire, K., and Tonder, M., (2008) Person, Place, and Knowledge in the Conservation of the Saimaa Ringed Seal. Society and Natural Resources, 21:277–293 McLaren IA (1958) The biology of the ringed seal (Phoca hispida Schreber) in the eastern Canadian arctic. Fisheries Research Board of Canada Bulletin No. 118 MMMagazine by Katie Hinde, Margaret Janz, Melanie Beasley, & William Yates Xie, C., Liu, C., Wang, H., Liu, D., and Jim, C.Y., (2024) Distribution pattern of large old Ginkgo biloba in China underclimate change scenarios. Ecology and Evolution 14:e11367 March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 139 GENETICS SPOTLIGHT city parks and backyards around the world. Ferns captivate us with their slow unfurling fronds, little clumps of spores, and their microscopic free-living prothallus, an evolutionary relict of the time before seeds evolved, yet today ferns are still the second most species-rich lineage of land plants. The plants that should have been in March Mammal Madness March Mammal Madness often includes non-animals such as plants and fungi in its divisions, and yet more plants would have found a home in this year’s Roots and Relicts division than any other division in years past. There is a wealth of extraordinarily ancient and unique plants out there, relicts from eons ago when their taxonomic orders used to dominate Earth’s landscapes, with only a few living representatives still around today. This year we got ginkgos and ferns into our bracket. Gingkos are living legends on their own, as a group previously thought extinct at the end of the Pliocene (2.4 million years ago) only to find a single species, Ginkgo biloba, still alive in China. Gingkos are now far from rare, many grace our But there are other ancient and unique plants that could have made our bracket this year! Lycophytes are seedless plants, just like ferns, and were the first plants to colonize land during the Silurian (444 to 419 million years ago), with lycopod trees forming entire forests during the Carboniferous. Today, lycophytes are only represented by small herb-like plants like clubmosses. Horsetails are another ancient group of seedless plants. Their fossil record spans at least to the Devonian (419–359 million years ago), and they diverged March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 140 GENETICS SPOTLIGHT from ferns so long ago that botanists don’t quite know how to group them together. Some people place horsetails in their own taxonomic class of plant, Sphenopsida, some people group them inside the ferns. In either case, the only genus left today is Equisetum, with about 30 living species, many of which are very common, and are easy to recognize by their straw-like hollow shoots. Northern Hemisphere forests, yet the only Southern Hemisphere conifer genus, Araucaria, would be at home in the Roots and Relicts division. Araucarias used to be found throughout the world until about 65 million years ago, at the same time non-avian dinosaurs became extinct. Only 20 species remain today, with 14 found exclusively in the archipelago of New Caledonia in Oceania. Gnetophytes round up the “naked seed” group of plants known as gymnosperms, along with cycads, gingkos, and conifers. Gnetophytes are reduced to three living genera, Gnetum, Ephedra, and Welwitschia; each more fantastic than the last. Welwitschia mirabilis could have also been featured in The Only Ones division this year. Found in the deserts of Namibia and Angola, Welwitschia is one of the most bizarre and endearing plants out there; it only ever grows two Seeds evolved some 370 million years ago, and were a game changer for plants, just how hard-shelled eggs were a game changer for land animals. Ancient, seeded plants like cycads dominated Earth’s landscapes during the Mesozoic (352 to 66 million years ago), the age of the dinosaurs, but are now reduced to only 300 species, although many are popular garden plants. Conifers first appeared some 300 million years ago and are still some of the dominant plants in Gigi Laidler / iNaturalist / CC BY-SA 4.0 March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 141 GENETICS SPOTLIGHT very long leaves through its life, which continuously elongate over the years resulting in a tangled mess. The latest group of plants to evolve are the angiosperms, meaning “covered seeds”, but we know them as the flowering plants. The angiosperms took over most niches on Earth sometime during the Cretaceous (145-66 million years ago) and make up most of the plants we interact with in our daily lives. Among the angiosperms, Amborella trichopoda would be at home this year in both the Roots and Relicts and The Only Ones divisions of March Mammal Madness. Amborella is the only species in the order Amborellales, and only surviving in the island refuge of New Caledonia, the same archipelago where most species of Araucaria persist, along many other unique and wondrous plants. But Amborella is also the sibling group to all other living flowering plants, having been its own unique lineage for at least 130 million years. As an evolutionary Root and Relict, it sports many features not seen in any other flowering plant. Plants are extraordinary organisms, but more so from the point of view of evolution. So many of them are ancient beyond memory, and yet we can still find living representatives in our backyards, where we get to stare at them in awe. We can only hope that future March Mammal Madness tournaments take inspiration from the world of ancient plant lineages and include lycophytes, horsetails, cycads, araucarias, gnetophytes and Amborella in coming years! -Prof Fernando Villanea CU Boulder March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 142 March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 143 COMBATANT ARTWORK Olivia Pellicer! ko-fi.com/opellisms www.opellisms.com Valeria Pellicer! ko-fi.com/veppart www.vpellicerart.com Charon Henning! Mary Casillas Freisner! ko-fi.com/oddangel ko-fi.com/marycasillas www.charonhenning.com marycasillas.wix.com/paintings March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 144 CURRENT BRACKET March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 145 27 March 2025 If you’re learning, you’re winning! ELITE TRAIT Since 2013 & RANDOM among 4 possibilities: Geothermal Wetlands, Sea Cave, Sky Islands, or Temperate Broadleaf Forests. Random habitat sampling is conducted WITH replacement. Who will triumph?! WHO WILL FALL? Read more to FIND OUT! Tonight the Elite Trait combatants who have thus far survived, persisted, photosynthesized, and carnaged their way through the first three rounds will now battle to be the champion of their division and enter the FINAL ROAR! But at this stage of the game, better-seeded species can no longer rely on HOME HABITAT ADVANTAGE, and the encounter locations are determined randomly Ginkgo & Rhizzo (1) vs. Alligator Gar (2) From the forest of Mount Jinfo, Ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba) teamed up with Rhizzo (Rhizophagus aggregatum) and outlasted Asian Forest Tortoise & Ringed Seal in these figurative and LITERAL battles of Roots & Relicts. Ginkgo sequesters carbon & ozone, and produces oxygen from photosynthesis aka Ecosystem Services, but as ozone concentrations in the atmosphere increase, Ginkgo's ability to sequester ozone gets worse, water efficiency gets HABITATS! Hot Springs of the Yellowstone by Thomas Moran 1872 March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 146 ELITE TRAIT lower elevations" (Pelletier et al. 2013), specifically Ginkgo + Rhizzo #BestFriends and Alligator Gar meet in the Santa Catalina Mountains of southern Arizona. Here the movement and process of the earth's crust and climate impact topography, soil, and living organisms in dynamic ways that play out over thousands and millions of years. worse, & ability to photosynthesize gets worse. From Deep in the Heart of Texas, this water rodeo queen GARNAGED her way through the competition, launching Cyanobacteria, pulverizing Horseshoe Crab, and crush-biting Frilled Shark to be the last living fossil swimming! Alligator Gar (Atractosteus spatula) are widely distributed in freshwater systems that involve flooded vegetation, but are vulnerable to climate change that can warm & fragment their waterways. Appropriate Alligator Gar habitat is expected to shift north in the next 50 years. The FULL Ginkgo tree and its mycorrhizal fungi Rhizzo #BestFriends are #MMMagically translocated to an elevation of 2.2 kilometers high in a mixed-conifer forest in the ridge & ravine upper mountain, where the soil depth is thickest. As Ginkgo grow during development... their root systems respond to the soil substrate, providing stability to the tree in one of two ways... roots growing DEEP & DOWN or roots growing TONIGHT the Ginkgo & Rhizzo face off against the Alligator Gar in the randomly selected habitat of... SKY ISLANDS! "Sky islands” refers to the forested areas at high elevations surrounded by the “seas” of desert-scrub-dominated communities at March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 147 WIDE & SHALLOW. aka VERTICAL Type or HORIZONTAL Type. Combatant Ginkgo has a vertical type root system, that requires 4-6 stoat lengths to stabilize the tree (3.3-6 feet, 1-1.5 meters). But the average soil depth at this elevation of the Santa Catalina mountains IS ONLY 2 STOATLENGTHS DEEP and the root system buckles against the bedrock! Ginkgo teeters unstable in the shallow soil… Alligator Gar is #MMMagically translocated from the Trinity River system in Texas to the forest floor carpeted with ponderosa pine needles! Aligator Gar's gills uselessly flap as the fish slowly suffocates out of water. In a last ditch attempt at preserving her life, Alligator Gar's flexible strength makes her flop in the dry top soil, sending up puffs of dust! Ginkgo tilts slightly away from the Alligator Gar, when a Turkey vulture lands on a branch above the slowly, tortuously dying Alligator Gar... WHAM! The extra 6lbs of Turkey Vulture shifts the timber trajectory and GINKGO CRASHES TO THE FOREST FLOOR RIGHT ON ALLIGATOR GAR'S HEAD! Turkey vulture hop trots along the forest floor to the protruding carcass of the dead Alligator Gar, as Ginkgo's crushed root system is now exposed above the soil substrate. GINKGO & RHIZZO CRUSH ALLIGATOR GAR! GINKGO & RHIZZO may be TIMBERED, but they are headed to the Final Roar! Narration by Katie Hinde. Shiva Shenoy / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 2.0 MMMagazine by Katie Hinde, Margaret Janz, Melanie Beasley, & William Yates March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 148 ELITE TRAIT Addax (1) vs. PUMA (2) Addax (Addax nasomaculatus) joins the ELITE TRAIT after scaring Peccary, watching Spotted-Necked Otter pounce a migrating bird, accidently hoof smooshing on Grant’s Golden Mole. Staying hydrated in the desert is no easy task! In order to survive, Addax hold onto water from the grasses they eat for an average of 36 hours - longer than camels! They may store water in their rumen, a part of their complex stomachs used to help break down grasses. Well-adapted to living in mountainous habitats, Pumas manage a careful balancing act of speed, distance, and energy use to climb steep hills. To accomplish this, Pumas slow down and climb slopes at an angle so that they minimize steepness, similar to our roads! TONIGHT'S RANDOMLY SELECTED HABITAT IS.... TEMPERATE BROADLEAF FOREST! Specifically, the 650,000-acre Cherokee National Forest (CNF), the largest tract of public land in Tennessee & a key location for American Chestnut restoration. CNF Dennis Cove Campground is one of many recreation Puma (Puma concolor) joins the Elite Trait after devouring Saiga, snacking Quokka bebe & accidently crushing MOLE on a deer carcass. March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 149 predators from home, but close enough! Addax alerts with horn-swipes to the air and dashes to escape! Addax immediately catches his horns in budding native azaleas that will blossom in white, pink & orange. Lunging in a rush-charge, ADDAX stumbles on the azalea roots! Puma’s predator eyes watch the struggling Addax... as puma’s lids drift lower... lower... lower... areas closed because of Hurricane Helene. NOAA reported tropical storm force winds in the area. In 2025, US Forest Service was forced to rescind job offers & fire new staff poised to make repairs. Addax is astonished by this dense, lush forest & cacophony of forest sounds... the swirling wood thrush song & quacking of wood frogs fill the evening air. Puma is delivered to the forest floor in the shadows beyond Addax... downwind from the hoofed mammal. Puma feels familiar in this landscape, although mountain lions were declared extirpated from Tennessee from the predator control programs of the early 1900s. Puma silently pads to the top of a boulder above the Addax and LEAPS… into the mighty oak tree directly ABOVE Addax! Puma slides into a pleasant CAT NAP! Puma gorged just YESTERDAY on Saiga, and puma hunts every 6-10 days, he poses NO RISK TO Addax as he is still digesting yesterday’s dinner in his full gut. Unaware of the lack of danger, Addax thrashes his way out of the azaleas, and FLEES from the FELID OF NO BATTLE! PUMA OUTLASTS ADDAX! Narrated by Tara Chestnut & Erin Rowland-Schaefer. THE WINDS SHIFT, and Addax catches the felid's scent... different than the lion and leopard Chris M / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 2.0 March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 150 ELITE TRAIT Sun Bear (2) vs. Gelada (8) Unlike many herbivores, Geladas (Theropithecus gelada) do not have specialized stomachs. But they DO have a specalized microbiome "highly enriched for...baceteria associated with ruminant digestion" that helps them digest all that fibrous grass. Sun Bears (Helarctos malayanus) are excellent climbers! Their large paws, long claws, muscular limbs, and smallish body make them well-suited to live in the forest. geysers, mudpots, & fumaroles! Gelada and Sun Bear eye each other warily through the steam of Yellowstone's geothermal features. Around them mud and water roil... beneath mineral crusts of unknown depth and stability. Sun Bear, adapted to warm climates, is chilled in the early Spring Rockies. His traits help him SHED heat, not conserve it! His high surface area to volume ratio & routine sitting in shade avoid over-heating. Unlike Sun Bear, Gelada is unphased by the cool temps. Geladas' easy breezy beautiful fur keeps them warm, and individuals living at the highest altitudes, like Combatant Gelada, have the highest hair density. Gelada stands bipedally to see the TONIGHT'S RANDOMLY SELECTED HABITAT IS.... GEOTHERMAL WETLANDS! Specifically, Yellowstone National Park, home to more than 10,000 hydrothermal features, including hot springs, a March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 151 ursid better. Sun Bear stands bipedally to see the primate better. Both strangers in a strange land, unsure and cautious... Gelada and Sun Bear retreat from each other... each picking a different path... Trying to select which forested cliff to head toward, Geladsends up a contact call toward his group, producing a long & complex sequence of vocalizations... but only silence returns. POLAR BEAR (1) vs. NARWHAL (2) Polar Bears (Ursus maritimus) have high resting metabolic rates due to their large mass & carnivorous diet. They have adapted to prefer energy-dense prey to meet energetic demands & fuel daily activities (Pagano et al. 2018) & become "walking hibernators" in response to starvation (Lennox & Goodship 2008). However only pregnant Polar Bears hibernate, helping them cope w/ increased demands of reproduction. They mate in Spring but delay gestation (via embryonic diapause) until hibernation (late Fall) when they spend ~2mos before giving birth and another 3 mos lactating. Sun Bear intrinsically steers toward a warmer and warmer micro-climate. Right now this area of Yellowstone hovers at freezing, as rain turns to sleet to snow, with temps well below his usual coldest of 15C/59F. Sun Bear's micro-climate is getting warmer as his path leads into pools of warmer water and many orange and yellow mineral deposits. The rough mineral crust is warm beneath his strongly-clawed paw pads... Toothed whales (like Narwhal, Monodon monoceros) have flexible rib cages that allow for lung compression in response to depth-related pressure changes that would otherwise cause their lungs to burst (Rommel et al. 2006). During dives, Narwhal do not breathe; insights into their physiology during oxygen-poor (hypoxic) conditions have been applied to understanding human physiology during COVID-19 infections. SSCCCRACK! Sun Bear takes an errant step & his back paw breaks through the thin crust of minerals to the boiling water underneath! Sun Bear regains his balance & quickly retracts his poached paw, the only body part to touch the scalding water. He begins to limp away in a hurry, shifting more of his weight away from his injured paw. Tonight begins in the high arctic, along the coastal shore of The Barrow Sraight in Nunavut. Here is where both arctic combatants call their native home, which they both have been enjoying with home habitat advantage through the first 2 rounds! The Narwhal is wary and alone. Orcas had targeted the pod & in evasive maneuvers, our narwhal split away from the group. Now Narwhal swims alone much closer to the shoreline, moving quietly so not to attract attention of nearby predators. Sun Bear has moved beyond the mineral crust and heads down into a gully… SUN BEAR DROPS DEAD! Geothermal gas emissions have collected in a gully, creating lethally high pockets of carbon dioxide (CO2) & hydrogen sulfide (H2S)! A death gulch claims another ursid victim in Yellowstone! #2025MMM Gelada selects a safe sleeping spot on a cliff above the Geothermal Wetlands. GELADA OUTLASTS SUN BEAR! ALWAYS FOLLOW PARK GUIDANCE- stay on trails, stay on boardwalks! All too often park visitors are injured and unalived in geothermal areas. Narrated by Lara Durgavich, Marc Kissel, & Katie Hinde But one predator does sense the narwhal… Polar bear sits quietly on the shoreline still consuming yesterday's CAPE BUFFALO, when the lone cetacean catches his attention. While typically March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 152 ELITE TRAIT cetaceans make up less than 6% of a polar bear’s diet, during the spring, close proximity with migrating whales in this strait can increase consumption rates with some individuals having more than half of their diet consisting of narwhal meat! But a smart bear knows the odds… targeting a large male narwhal with room to swim away is a waste of energy than a filling meal. Narwhal in the diet of most polar bears comes from scavenging individuals that died navigating gaps in the ice. SPECIFICALLY the Tauranga geothermal system adjacent to the Bay of Plenty in Aotearoa / New Zealand! Still fearful of the possibly lurking orca, Narwhal makes use of the shallow water. where the warm springs from the Tauranga geothermal system flows into the lagoon... the Narwhal gets caught on a submerged muddy sandflat! #BEACHED Under extreme stress, most organisms have elevated flight or fight responses. But Narwhal instead has a massive DROP in heart rate, as low as 4 beats per minutes! This "Paradoxical Response" likely conserves oxygen as long as possible... Polar Bear turns to refocus on Cape Buffalo carcass…when SUDDENLY a predatory orca streaks toward Narwhal! NARWHAL FLEES THE ORCA TOWARD THE POLAR BEAR ON THE SEA ICE! Seeing the Narwhal stranded in the shallow pool, polar bear re-calculates the odds of a successful hunt & moves in fast for a FEAST! After all, spring is the MAIN GORGING season of Polar Bears that will continue to consume meat available many days in a row! JUST AS THE #MMMagic Translocation Portal RELOCATES Narhwal and Polar Bear to the GEOTHERMAL WETLANDS! [Did you think we forgot about that?] POLAR BEAR DEFEATS NARWHAL! Narration by Brian Tanis, Chloe Josefson, & Katie Hinde March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 153 CITATIONS Polar Bear vs. Narwal Polar Bear vs. Narwal continued Carden, Y., Wells, C., Wolpmann, L., Doorman, P., & Howie, D. (2024, November). Investigating the Geoheat Potential of the Tauranga Geothermal System. In Proceedings 46th New Zealand Geothermal Workshop (Vol. 20, p. 22). Williams, T.M. and Davis, R.W., 2021. Physiological resiliency in diving mammals: insights on hypoxia protection using the Krogh principle to understand COVID-19 symptoms. Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology Part A: Molecular & Integrative Physiology, 253, p.110849. de PS Zuquim, M., Zarrouk, S. J., & Janků-Čapova, L. (2022, November). Tauranga geothermal system–an overview. In Proceedings 44th New Zealand Geothermal Workshop 23: 25). . Ginkgo & Rhizzo vs. Alligator Gar Bartnicki, J., Snow, R. A., Taylor, A. T., & Butler, C. J. (2024). Use of multiple climate change scenarios to predict future distributions of alligator gar (Atractosteus spatula) in the United States. Environmental Biology of Fishes, 107(12), 1475-1483. Galicia, M. P., Thiemann, G. W., Dyck, M. G., & Ferguson, S. H. (2021). Polar bear diet composition reveals spatiotemporal distribution of Arctic marine mammals across Nunavut, Canada. Ecological Indicators, 132, 108245. Laidre, K. L., Heide-Jørgensen, M. P., & Orr, J. R. (2006). Reactions of narwhals, Monodon monoceros, to killer whale, Orcinus orca, attacks in the eastern Canadian Arctic. The Canadian Field-Naturalist, 120(4), 457-465. Chen, B., Xu, J., Liu, D., & Yang, X. (2022). Response of Ginkgo biloba growth and physiological traits to ozone stress. Global Ecology and Conservation, 34, e02020. Liang, Y., Zhou, K., & Cao, L. (2024). An advanced three-dimensional phenotypic measurement approach for extracting Ginkgo root structural parameters based on terrestrial laser scanning. Frontiers in Plant Science, 15, 1356078. Laidre, K. L., Stirling, I., Estes, J. A., Kochnev, A., & Roberts, J. (2018). Historical and potential future importance of large whales as food for polar bears. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, 16(9), 515-524 Lennox, A.R. and Goodship, A.E., 2008. Polar bears (Ursus maritimus), the most evolutionary advanced hibernators, avoid significant bone loss during hibernation. Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology Part A: Molecular & Integrative Physiology, 149(2), pp.203-208. Pelletier, J. D., Barron‐Gafford, G. A., Breshears, D. D., Brooks, P. D., Chorover, J., Durcik, M., ... & Troch, P. A. (2013). Coevolution of nonlinear trends in vegetation, soils, and topography with elevation and slope aspect: A case study in the sky islands of southern Arizona. Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface, 118(2), 741-758. Murphy, B.D. and Fenelon, J., 2020. Models of embryonic diapause in Carnivora. Bioscientifica Proceedings, 10. Sazima, I. (2018). Cold and smelly meals: fish carrion in the diet of scavenger raptors in the Neotropics. Atualidades Ornitol, 201, 18-20. Pagano, A.M., Carnahan, A.M., Robbins, C.T., Owen, M.A., Batson, T., Wagner, N., Cutting, A., Nicassio-Hiskey, N., Hash, A. and Williams, T.M., 2018. Energetic costs of locomotion in bears: is plantigrade locomotion energetically economical?. Journal of Experimental Biology, 221(12), p.jeb175372. Addax vs. Puma Dunford, C.E., Marks, N.J., Wilmers, C.C., Bryce, C.M., Nickel, B., Wolfe, L.L., Scantlebury, D.M., & Williams, T.M. (2020) Surviving in steep terrain: a lab-to-field assessment of locomotor costs for wild mountain lions (Puma concolor). Movement Ecology, 8(34) Rommel, S.A., Costidis, A.M., Fernandez, A., Jepson, P.D., Pabst, D.A., Houser, D.S., Cranford, T.W., Van Helden, A.L., Allen, D.M. and Barros, N.B., 2006. Elements of beaked whale anatomy and diving physiology and some hypothetical causes of sonar-related stranding. Journal of Cetacean Research and Management. Hummel, J., Steuer, P., Südekum, K., Hammer, S., Hammer, C., Streich, W.J., & Clauss, M. (2008) Fluid and particle retention in the digestive tract of the addax antelope (Addax nasomaculatus)—Adaptations of a grazing desert ruminant. Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology Part A: Molecular & Integrative Physiology, 149(2), 142-149 Williams, T. M., Blackwell, S. B., Richter, B., Sinding, M. H. S., & Heide-Jørgensen, M. P. (2017). Paradoxical escape responses by narwhals (Monodon monoceros). Science, 358(6368), 1328-1331 March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 154 CITATIONS Gelada vs. Sun Bear Gelada vs. Sun Bear continued Christiansen, R. L., Lowenstern, J. B., Smith, R. B., Heasler, H., Morgan, L. A., Nathenson, M., ... & Robinson, J. E. (2007). Preliminary assessment of volcanic and hydrothermal hazards in Yellowstone National Park and vicinity. U. S. Geological Survey. Iwamoto, T., & Dunbar, R. I. M. (1983). Thermoregulation, habitat quality and the behavioural ecology of gelada baboons. The Journal of animal ecology, 357-366. Schneider, M., Ziegler, T., & Kolter, L. (2020). Thermoregulation in Malayan sun bears (Helarctos malayanus) and its consequences for in situ conservation. Journal of Thermal Biology, 91, 102646. Erfurt-Cooper, P. (2018). Active hydrothermal features as tourist attractions (pp. 85-105). Springer International Publishing. Trosvik, P., de Muinck, E. J., Rueness, E. K., Fashing, P. J., Beierschmitt, E. C., Callingham, K. R., ... & Nguyen, N. (2018). Multilevel social structure and diet shape the gut microbiota of the gelada monkey, the only grazing primate. Microbiome, 6, 1-18. Gustison, M. L., Tinsley Johnson, E., Beehner, J. C., & Bergman, T. J. (2019). The social functions of complex vocal sequences in wild geladas. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 73, 1-12. March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 155 GENETICS SPOTLIGHT DNA LINGERING IN THE LANDSCAPE! including present-day organisms as well as organisms that lived 2 million years ago. Scientists can study an animal’s DNA even without seeing or touching the animal itself! This is possible thanks to environmental DNA (or eDNA for short), which refers to DNA that can be extracted from environmental samples such as soil, water, air, permafrost, spider webs, leaf surfaces, feces and more! But how do scientists study eDNA? One approach, called “eDNA barcoding,” involves targeting specific genes – such as COX1 for animals, rbcL for plants, or 16S for bacteria – and sequencing them. This allows researchers to identify the species (or sometimes just the genus or family) of the organisms that left traces of DNA in that environment. Another approach, known as “shotgun sequencing,” involves sequencing all the DNA molecules found in an environmental sample and then using bioinformatics to sort through the data. With shotgun sequencing, it’s not only possible to detect which species are present in a sample, but also, in some cases, to reconstruct most or even all of the genome of an organism. Living organisms shed biological material into their environment, leaving behind traces of their DNA. Scientists have been analyzing eDNA from soil and water for more than two decades. Early studies mostly focused on retrieving genetic material from microorganisms. Over time, however, eDNA research has expanded to include a wide variety of life forms, from small invertebrates to larger animals and plants, March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 156 GENETICS SPOTLIGHT In one recent eDNA study, researchers reconstructed a 2-million-year-old (!!!) ecosystem in Greenland. They were able to uncover traces of plants such as poplar, birch, and thuja trees, along with mastodons, reindeer, rodents, and geese. In addition to significant contributions to conservation biology and ecology, eDNA has important applications in other fields of knowledge as well. For instance, my research group is currently using eDNA to reconstruct the gardens of the Roman city of Pompeii. We are analyzing soil samples from a garden that was preserved under volcanic ash after the eruption of the Vesuvius in 79 CE. By using shotgun sequencing, we were able to identify what plants once grew there, including olives, grapes, walnuts, and even members of the cabbage family. This work will help archaeologists and historians better understand how Romans used their gardens – for food, medicine, or leisure – and shows how genetics can bring lost landscapes back to life. Royle Safaris / iNaturalist / CC BY-SA 4.0 eDNA is a revolutionary tool in community ecology, conservation biology, biomonitoring, and invasion biology by offering new ways to study wildlife, sometimes even when those organisms are endangered, not easily observed (like snow leopards, above), or long gone. For example, by analyzing eDNA from a river or lake, researchers can estimate how many species are present in that ecosystem and, in some cases, even approximate how many individuals of a particular species live there. Moreover, eDNA has helped detect invasive aquatic species before they could spread further, track endangered wildlife that might otherwise go unnoticed by researchers, and assess human impact on ecosystems like wetlands and rivers. eDNA has even revealed microbial life forms that are not possible to be cultivated in the lab, offering a look into the “invisible” biodiversity around us. The power of eDNA extends into the deep past, too. From permafrost samples, scientists have recovered DNA from organisms that lived thousands of years ago, providing clues about ecosystems frozen in time, and what might happen as that ice melts due to global warming and these organisms come in contact with our environment. -Prof Eduardo Amorim, CSU Northridge Further Reading: Garlapati et al 2019. A review on the applications and recent advances in environmental DNA (eDNA) metagenomics. Reviews in Environmental Science and Biotechnology, 18(3), 389–411. Kjær et al. 2022. A 2-million-year-old ecosystem in Greenland uncovered by environmental DNA. Nature, 612(7939), 283–291. Taberlet et al. 2012. Environmental DNA. Molecular Ecology, 21(8), 1789–1793. Waldrop et al. 2025. Microbial Ecology of Permafrost Soils: Populations, Processes, and Perspectives. Permafrost and Periglacial Processes. https://doi.org/10.1002/ppp.2264 March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 157 COMBATANT ARTWORK Olivia Pellicer! ko-fi.com/opellisms www.opellisms.com Valeria Pellicer! ko-fi.com/veppart www.vpellicerart.com Charon Henning! Mary Casillas Freisner! ko-fi.com/oddangel ko-fi.com/marycasillas www.charonhenning.com marycasillas.wix.com/paintings March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 158 CURRENT BRACKET March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 159 31 March 2025 If you’re learning, you’re winning! FINAL Since 2013 For primate species worldwide, their historical (and often contemporary) ranges overlap with felids. As such, felid predators within the ecosystem have been an important selective force on primate anti-predator adaptations. Gelada (Theropithecus gelada) can share habitat with leopards, serval, and caracal, though the smaller felids are less of a concern for adult male Gelada. ROAR Tonight Puma and Gelada will encounter one another in the randomly determined habitat... Temperate Broadleaf Forest! Specifically, #MMMagic translocates Puma amongst the oak and hickory trees near the campus of the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute in Front Royal, Virginia. The sun is sinking low, painted on the sky. In the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains within the Potomac-Shenandoah watershed... ALMOST HEAVEN. Puma vs. Gelada Although highly specialized stalk and pounce predators of deer species, Puma (Puma concolor) routinely make use of primate prey in Mexico, Central America, and South America, especially where human activities disturb forest habitats impacting ungulates and more typical prey. Howler monkey, spider monkey, white-faced capuchin, and muriqui are some of the larger delectable delights on Puma's dinner plate, as evidenced by primate remains recovered from poop! March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 160 FINAL ROAR In the descending darkness, Gelada looks for a safe sleeping spot, ideally some hard to access cliff along an escarpment. Gelada turns just as Puma pounces! Gelada gets out a startled alarm bark and then Puma’s 2-inch upper canines gouge two grooves on either side of Gelada's nose! Gelada flinches, tearing a horizontal rip under his nose from Puma teeth. Gelada, counter-attacks with barking lunge at Puma! He viciously slashes at Puma with 2-inch, tissue-severing canines! Although a herbivore that grazes grass, Gelada wields some of the sharpest canines among all mammals. Not the blunt instruments of a felid, male-male combat among the cercopithecines has Puma smells the air and assesses his surroundings, having consumed Saiga last Wednesday, Puma prepares to hunt when a long sequenced grunt rumbles through the forest. Puma crouches low, silently and furtively backtracking to the source of the sound. Gelada is dismayed to be without his socially bonded unit, that associates with other units into a band, within an even larger aggregation of bands that form a large grazing community of these uniquely hierarchically organized primates. The large male Gelada gives another long sequence contact grunt typically made by males during group movements and travel. "I get a feelin' that I should've been home yesterday." vastateparksstaff / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 2.0 March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 161 favored weapon-like upper canines that are basically MOUTH DAGGERS that sharpen against the honing lower premolar as Gelada males open and close their mouths! Highly maneuverable, Puma leaps to avoid Gelada's attack, giving Gelada time to rush-escape into a tree! Puma chases Gelada into the tree canopy! The 45 lb Gelada backs away from the predatory 150 lb Puma, backing out onto a swaying, dipping branch, and looks to leap to a nearby treetop to escape... but the forest is not contiguous! Blood drips down Gelada's face, spattering on the first new leaves of spring.Puma creeps out onto Gelada's branch. His weight. dips the branch... as Gelada clings... Ginkgo & Rhizzo #BestFriends vs. Polar Bear Once Ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba) are 30-40 years old, their autumn fleshy seeds "emits a rancid odor reminiscent of human vomit... In the horticultural literature, the smell is variously described as “disagreeable,” “evil,” “offensive,” “disgusting,” “repulsive,” “putrid,” and “abominable” (Del Tredici 2024). To omnivorous scavenging Carnivora like leopard cats, civets, and racoon dogs the autumnt seed packages are the siren scent of carcass! This adaptation of Ginkgos likely recruits far-ranging seed-dispersers. Mycorrhizal fungi (Rhizophagus aggregatus) provide ~90% of the nutrients to their host plants, and the plants provide 30% of the photosynthetic carbon to the mycorrhizal fungi. Fungi also release nutrients into the soil to support bacterial communities beneficial to the plant host. "Without their plant host, arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi "can sustain for 2–4 weeks by utilizing their own energy sources such as triacylglycerides” (Yu et al. 2022). SNAP SNAP SNAP! The terminal branches fail, plummeting Gelada from the tree… and into the river running through the forest! Downstream on the far side of the river, Gelada hauls out beyond the field of battle, fleeing into the night #CountryRoadsTakeMeHome PUMA OUTLASTS GELADA! Narrated by Katie Hinde and Lara Durgavich. Western Hudson Bay Polar Bears (Ursus maritimus) abandon the sea ice when cover falls below 30%, leading to a fasting period on land. Despite the energy constraints of fasting, this population includes adult male bears who use March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 162 FINAL ROAR energy for social play. Play behaviors involve "rearing, wrestling, mouthing, facial contact, foreleg pushing, rear and contact, inhibited bites, forward advances, backward retreats, and rushing and fleeing" (Bissonnette 2020). Counter-intuitively (aka opposite of predictions), adult male polar bears increased play behavior as the fasting season progressed. Climate change is lengthening the ice-free fasting season, increasing polar bear mortality, so why use precious energy to play? "Continuing to train-for-the-unexpected into adulthood must be beneficial in avoiding or Timbered Ginkgo and Rhizzo will encounter Polar Bear in the randomly selected habitat…Sea Cave! Specifically, a sea cave of Prince of Wales Island in the Tongass National Forest in Alaska and the Traditional Homelands of the Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian People. Islands in this archipelago are "at the end of a tectonic conveyor belt where pieces of 10 to 11 continents which no longer exist came rafted on plates and stacked up along the outer shores” (USFS 2010). There are >700 caves present here with more found each year! escaping harmful situations... adults may benefit from continuing to develop muscle mass, also supporting the motor-training hypothesis" (Bissonnette 2020). But what kind of Sea Cave?! Here the techtonics, glacial periods, sea levels, steep gradients, karst limestone, and heavy and frequent rainfall dynamically influence the formation and March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 163 Tidal Sea Caves: Along the present-day coastline, erosion of rock by sea waves and rainstorms have created caves with water levels that change with the tides. Gingko & Rhizzo and Polar Bear are #MMMagically translocated to a Tidal Sea Cave! Ginkgo and Rhizzo are fully submerged in the salty sea water! As saplings, Ginkgos have relatively low tolerance for salinity. Throughout life, Ginkgos do poorly when waterlogged in flooded conditions for many days. Polar Bear swims upward reaching the cave ceiling but water meets rock with no air pocket! evolution of cave systems (Speleogenesis). Sea Caves can take several different forms. Submerged Sea Caves: Now fully submerged due to sea level rise, these sea caves were the coastlines of late Pleistocene Alaska (10,600 - 17,000 years ago) and sites of underwater archaeology for understanding how earlier peoples used these caves. Uplifted Sea Caves: Land mass tectonics, and changing sea levels, and glacial isostatic rebound expose once underwater sea caves above sea level. Some are sinkholes in the forest! Storm surges can flow massive trees down into these cave systems, delivering nutrients and shaping cave ecosystems. WHOOOOSH! A wave backflows from the cave, bashing Ginkgo’s root system against the sea cave wall gouging into the karst but breaking root cells from the tree and flushing Rhizzo into the sea water! Polar Bear's extensive swimming in arctic waters and often-shifting drift ice keep Polar Bear from immediately panicking, as he dives swimming in the direction of the ocean flow. WHOOOSH! Incoming wave shoves Ginkgo into Polar Bear, crush-pinning the Bear’s forearm to the sea cave wall. In a submerged roar of pain, Polar Bear’s mouth is flooded with sea water. WHOOSH! An outgoing wave pulls Polar Bear into the Ginkgo tree. March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 164 FINAL ROAR WHOOOSH! Incoming wave dislodges Ginkgo tree from a wedged position, releasing Polar Bear who pushed with his back legs against Ginkgo’s tree trunk. GAAAASSSSPPPPP! Polar Bear surfaces to an air pocket in the sea cave! Ginkgo & Rhizzo vs. Polar Bear Alaska Department of Fish and Game. 2006. Our Wealth Maintained: A Strategy for Conserving Alaska's Diverse Wildlife and Fish Resources. 824pg Aley, T., Aley, C., Elliott, W. R., & Huntoon, P. W. (1993). Karst and cave resource significance assessment, Ketchikan area, Tongass National Forest, Alaska. Report of the Karst Resources Panel, 79. WHOOSH! The outgoing wave pulls at the combatants, high tide was 90 minutes ago and the tide is dropping fast. Polar Bear’s strong claws – and with ankles more maneuverable than a grizzly bear – dig into the karst sea cave ceiling. Polar Bear fights the push and pulls of the waves to stay in his air pocket. WHOOSH! WHOOSH! An outgoing wave pulls, pulls and Polar Bear’s claws scrape at the ceiling, holding, holding… Bissonnette, P. (2020). Adult polar bear behaviour: Using non-invasive techniques to assess social play. Del Tredici, P. (2024). The Ginkgo—Covid connection. Plants, People, Planet, 6(6), 1224-1230. Doong, D. J., Chuang, H. C., Shieh, C. L., & Hu, J. H. (2011). Quantity, distribution, and impacts of coastal driftwood triggered by a typhoon. Marine pollution bulletin, 62(7), 1446-1454. Jodouin, C. (2023). Individual variation in on-ice movement dynamics and site fidelity of western Hudson Bay polar bears. WHOOSH! Karst crumbles & the Polar Bear loses his claw grip, but the wave has already pulled Ginkgo and Rhizzo OUT OF THE CAVE! "Nearshore current and wave motion are the critical factors for driftwood deposition" (Doong et al. 2011, and see Murphy 2024). Polar Bear holding his wounded forearm close to his body, laboriously paddles his way to shore, as the outgoing tide rafts Ginkgo and Rhizzo toward the open Pacific and beyond the field of battle! POLAR BEAR OUTLASTS GINKGO & RHIZZO!!!! Narrated by Katie Hinde and Tara Chestnut. Lin, H. Y., Li, W. H., Lin, C. F., Wu, H. R., & Zhao, Y. P. (2022). International biological flora: Ginkgo biloba. Journal of Ecology, 110(4), 951-982. Murphy, E. (2024). Driftwood Transport and Fate in Coastal Waters (Doctoral dissertation, Université d'Ottawa| University of Ottawa). Polly, P. D. (2024, November). Bear feet with Björn: tarsal evolution in the origin of polar bears. In Annales Zoologici Fennici (Vol. 61, No. 1, pp. 357-376). Finnish Zoological and Botanical Publishing Board. Whiteman, J. P. (2021). Polar bear behavior: Morphologic and physiologic adaptations. In Ethology and behavioral ecology of sea otters and polar bears (pp. 219-246). Cham: Springer International Publishing. Yu, L., Zhang, Z., & Zhou, L. (2022). Advances in the studies on symbiotic arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi of traditional Chinese medicinal plants. Biocell, 46(12). PSA: Support stewardship of Tongass National Forest and make your voice heard! The Tongass Land Management Plan is currently under revision! A representative from the Tongass team is available to attend your group meeting and/or provide a presentation. MMMagazine by Katie Hinde, Margaret Janz, Melanie Beasley, & William Yates March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 165 CITATIONS Puma vs. Gelada Puma vs. Gelada continued Bryce, C. M., Wilmers, C. C., & Williams, T. M. (2017). Energetics and evasion dynamics of large predators and prey: pumas vs. hounds. PeerJ, 5, e3701. Shedden‐González, A., Solórzano‐García, B., White, J. M., Gillingham, P. K., & Korstjens, A. H. (2023). Drivers of jaguar (Panthera onca) and puma (Puma concolor) predation on endangered primates within a transformed landscape in southern Mexico. Biotropica, 55(5), 1058-1068. Burnham, D., Hinks, A. E., & Macdonald, D. W. (2013). Life and dinner under the shared umbrella: patterns in felid and primate communities. Folia Primatologica, 83(3-6), 148-170. Shedden‐González, A., Solórzano‐García, B., White, J. M., Gillingham, P. K., & Korstjens, A. H. (2023). Drivers of jaguar (Panthera onca) and puma (Puma concolor) predation on endangered primates within a transformed landscape in southern Mexico. Biotropica, 55(5), 1058-1068. Iwamoto, T., Mori, A., Kawai, M., & Bekele, A. (1996). Anti-predator behavior of gelada baboons. Primates, 37, 389-397. Lin, B., Foxfoot, I. R., Miller, C. M., Venkatamaran, V. V., Kerby, J. T., Bechtold, E. K., ... & Fashing, P. J. (2020). Leopard predation on gelada monkeys at Guassa, Ethiopia. American Journal of Primatology, 82(2), e23098. Venkataraman, V. V., & Mekonnen, A. (2023). Geladas. Current Biology, 33(10), R382-R384. Washburn, A. (1996). A radiographic analysis of enamel volume in anthropoid honing premolars. Temple University. Ludwig, G., Aguiar, L. M., Miranda, J. M., Teixeira, G. M., Svoboda, W. K., Malanski, L. S., ... & Passos, F. C. (2007). Cougar predation on black-and-gold howlers on Mutum Island, Southern Brazil. International Journal of Primatology, 28, 39-46. Washburn, S. L., & Ciochon, R. L. (1974). Canine Teeth: Notes on Controversies in the Study of Human Evolution 1. American Anthropologist, 76(4), 765-784. McGregor, I. R., Helcoski, R., Kunert, N., Tepley, A. J., Gonzalez‐Akre, E. B., Herrmann, V., ... & Anderson‐Teixeira, K. J. (2021). Tree height and leaf drought tolerance traits shape growth responses across droughts in a temperate broadleaf forest. New Phytologist, 231(2), 601-616. . Moreno, R. S., Kays, R. W., & Samudio, R. (2006). Competitive release in diets of ocelot (Leopardus pardalis) and puma (Puma concolor) after jaguar (Panthera onca) decline. Journal of Mammalogy, 87(4), 808-816. Mori, A., Iwamoto, T., & Bekele, A. (1997). A case of infanticide in a recently found gelada population in Arsi, Ethiopia. Primates, 38, 79-88. Mourthé, Í. (2011). Reactions of White-Bellied Spider Monkeys to a Predation Attempt by a Cougar. Neotropical Primates, 18(1), 28-29. Painter, M. C., Gustison, M. L., Snyder-Mackler, N., Johnson, E. T., le Roux, A., & Bergman, T. J. (2024). Acoustic variation and group level convergence of gelada, Theropithecus gelada, contact calls. Animal Behaviour, 207, 235-246. Sea turtle / Flickr / CC BY-SA 4.0 PSA: Watch Those Logs!! It only takes four inches of water to lift a five-ton log. For your safety, if you see a log on the surf or sand, steer clear! Santos, J. L., Paschoal, A. M. O., Massara, R. L., & Chiarello, A. G. (2014). High consumption of primates by pumas and ocelots in a remnant of the Brazilian Atlantic Forest. Brazilian Journal of Biology, 74(3), 632-641. March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 166 GENETICS SPOTLIGHT OLD, COLD, & EXTINCTish To do this, we need a specialized laboratory (to prevent contamination) and methods to retrieve the tiny amounts of DNA that remains after time has taken its toll. Typically, ancient DNA preserves best in cold, dry places such as caves or permafrost. How do we get genetic data from extinct species? There are two ways: ghosts and ancient DNA! Ok, not actual ghosts, but ghost populations inferred based on divergent DNA found in living species. These ghost populations interbred with the ancestors of existing (or extant) species, and their “ghost” DNA can be distinguished from the rest of the DNA in the genome using population genetic analyses. For example, many humans have DNA that introgressed (i.e. was introduced into their genomes) from Neandertals and Denisovans (two groups that we also have ancient DNA data from) and some people in Africa have DNA from a ghost population that we don’t have ancient DNA from. But how do we get ancient DNA from extinct species? Ancient DNA has been recovered from several extinct species from both CAVES and permafrost. In addition to Neandertals and Denisovans, cave environments have also preserved DNA from cave bears (extinct bears that would have given polar bear a run for its money), moas and giant ground sloths. Permafrost contexts have yielded DNA from Pleistocene woolly mammoths, woolly rhinos, ancestral horses and New World stilt legged horses. March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 166 GENETICS SPOTLIGHT Unfortunately there is a limit to how far back we can look into the past in terms of recovering the DNA of extinct species: estimates based on the chemical properties of DNA suggest that under optimal conditions, DNA can survive 1-2 million years. “Ghost” DNA slowly gets lost, through genetic drift, or gets harder to identify as it is broken up into smaller pieces by recombination. Paleoproteomics, which investigates ancient protein fragments, can allow us to access older genetic data such as that of the extinct Eurasian rhino Stephanorhinus (but alas or thankfully… we are not going to get dino DNA to create Jurassic Park!). -Prof Anne Stone, Arizona State University Learn more: Ancient DNA Analysis: From Sample to Sequence Heintzman et al. 2017. A new genus of horse from Pleistocene North America. Elife, 6, e29944. Ghost lineages: Genetic legacies of extinct ancestors Llez / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0 March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 168 BLUESKY BANTER March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 169 COMBATANT ARTWORK Olivia Pellicer! ko-fi.com/opellisms www.opellisms.com Charon Henning! ko-fi.com/oddangel www.charonhenning.com Valeria Pellicer! ko-fi.com/veppart www.vpellicerart.com Mary Casillas Freisner! ko-fi.com/marycasillas marycasillas.wix.com/paintings March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 170 CURRENT BRACKET SCORING GINKGO & RHIZZO: If player picked either Ginkgo or Rhizzo to advance, either counts as a win. Provide CERTIFICATE to any students who called the SYMBIOSIS ADVANCE :-D The ONLINE MMMBrackets and POOLS-by-Round have been accounting for the Ginkgo-Rhizzo shenanigans, so those scores are up to date and relect outcomes through the Final Roar Mr. Brunstrum’s Contest Manager bracket awards points for Ginkgo pick, so teachers will have to manually add points for students/players who picked Rhizzo. March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 171 2 April 2025 If you’re learning, you’re winning! Since 2013 CHAMPIONSHIP Puma vs Polar Bear Across much of their range, Puma (Puma concolor) share habitats with Grizzly Bears and Black Bears in North America and Spectacled Bears in South America. Polar Bears (Ursus maritimus) have no distributional overlap with any felids, but parts of their range overlap with Grizzly Bears. At large whale carcasses, Polar Bears are typically submissive to the dominance of Grizzly Bears. Tonight these two hypercarnivore combatants will encounter each other in the randomly selected landscape of… the GEOTHERMAL WETLANDS. Specifically, the battle occurs in Laugavalladalur, west of the Jökulsá á Dal, some 20 km North of dam Káraghnjúkar in the Eastern Highlands of Iceland. Here in a landscape of fire and ice, the very land is being ripped apart along the MidAtlantic Ridge as the North American plate and the Eurasian plate move apart in continental drift. By 2 centimeters a year, Iceland is TORN ASUNDER! Geological CARNAGE! #MMMagically translocated, Polar Bear gazes at an eerily familiar but foreign snow-covered landscape but he is not the first polar bear to look upon these lands! Although not native to Iceland, for hundreds of years, humans have recorded sightings of vagrant, straggler polar bears visiting from eastern Greenland. The Icelandic Institute of Natural History manages a database of these records and mapped observations. Other than his injured forepaw, Polar Bear is in peak condition from winter ice hunting. Staring down the March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 172 Introduced from Scandanavia in the 1700s, several thousand caribou wander Eastern Iceland today kicking through snow to devour lichen. Approximately 1500 feet apart from "5-7 reindeer grazing", Polar Bear "frequently lifts his head, sniffing intensely" (Stempniewicz et al. 2021). Normally, it would take the bear about 2 minutes to cover this distance, but with his injured forepaw, Polar Bear locomotes more slowly. A large male reindeer in good physical condition sits on the ground facing away from the Polar Bear. Polar Bear awkwardly gallops towards the reindeer! Reindeer's peripheral vision spots the galloping Polar Bear, not nearly quick enough, stands up and runs toward the hot springs creek! “Polar Bear dashes behind the fleeing prey" (Stempniewicz et al. 2021)! Reindeer briefly stumbles AS POLAR BEAR ATTACKS! summer fast, Polar Bear is experiencing his typical spring hyperphagy of seal pup gorging season! Polar Bear begins tromping across the snowscape on 3 wide, weight distributing paws, but his 4th paw causes too much pain for his typical walking. Polar Bear sniffs the wind, smelling not a seal… but something mammal! #MMMagically translocated, Puma arrives into the rocky crags and sniffs the wind… smelling something ungulate. In the nearly treeless landscape, Puma creeps among the crags and cuts of the geologically dynamic area, the snow-covered lichen making no sound beneath the felid's paw pads. On the wind, Puma sniffs the unmistakable scent of ungulate, but cannot see any ungulates them from his position in the rock crags! Puma selects an ambush position to wait for supper to come around the corner. March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 173 CHAMPIONSHIP hemorrhaging, and clamping tight with his jaws, crushes the caribou's trachea, suffocating the caribou quickly. With rapid tearing, Puma rips into the torso of the caribou to eat the nutrient-rich organs first when… Polar Bear limps around the corner! Puma lifts his face smeared with blood and gives a harsh, hissing alarmed GROWL-SNARL-SCREAM at the danger presented by the marauding Polar Bear. Polar Bear assesses this scene of carcass and considers the interspecies competition. Polar Bear makes huffing and jaw popping sounds of subtle, but still overt aggression. Puma deploys vicious claws into the caribou carcass to hold onto the prey! With his injured foreleg, Polar Bear cannot reach out to grab and pull the caribou and the injured foreleg cannot support Polar Bear's weight while he reaches with his good paw to claw-grasp YOINK the carcass! Puma keeps pulling the caribou carcass through the geothermal wetland as Polar Bear watches from a 3-point stance, holding his injured paw tucked to his chest! Grasping the reindeer with clawed forepaws, Polar Bear's good paw claws into the caribou, but the crushed paw can't grip and the bucking caribou twists loose of the Polar Bear and dashes around the rock crags! POLAR BEAR HUFF-ROARS AT PUMA, revealing THAT ONE OF HIS MASSIVE UPPER CANINES IS BROKEN! Male-male battles for mates & carcasses can cause significant canine breakage in polar bears, as reported in a barn-burner of a paper dropped LAST WEEK! Polar Bear charges on three legs to 3-point stand on the caribou carcass! And with massive jaws leans down and rips the caribou open and eats its flesh! Puma AMBUSH LEAPS, BRINGING DOWN THE CARIBOU! "Cougars readily consume a variety of secondary ungulate prey, such as elk, caribou, and moose" (Engebretsen et al. 2021). Puma bites into the caribou's throat, causing rapid March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 174 Puma leaps away from another carcass-stealing ursid thief! After all, ursids routinely displace puma from successful kills. In some regions, bears displace pumas routinely at ungulate kills. At times, puma-killed ungulates can support most of a bear’s nutritional needs! "Cougars may lose a considerable energy investment when displaced by an aggressive scavenger or may incur injuries when defending their kills" and do not fight to recover a stolen carcass from a dominant scavenger as the risks are too great (Murphy et al. 1998). PUMA FLEES the FIELD OF BATTLE! Polar Bear guards the caribou carcass, chasing away sneaky sneak Arctic foxes for two hours consuming 60% of the caribou meat. POLAR BEAR IS THE 2025 MARCH MAMMAL MADNESS CHAMPION! Narrated by Katie Hinde! Alle et al. 2016. Exploring the adaptive significance of five types of puma (Puma concolor) vocalizations. The Canadian Field-Naturalist, 130(4), 289-294. Engebretsen et al. 2021. Recolonizing carnivores: Is cougar predation behaviorally mediated by bears?. Ecology and Evolution, 11(10), 5331-5343. Krofel et al. 2012. The noble cats and the big bad scavengers: effects of dominant scavengers on solitary predators. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 66, 1297-1304. Kutschera et al. 2016. High genetic variability of vagrant polar bears illustrates importance of population connectivity in fragmented sea ice habitats. Animal Conservation, 19(4), 337-349. Miller et al. 2015. Polar bear–grizzly bear interactions during the autumn open-water period in Alaska. Journal of Mammalogy, 96(6), 1317-1325. Murphy et al. 1998. Encounter competition between bears and cougars: some ecological implications. Ursus, 55-60. Rabe et al. 2025. Prey size mediates interference competition and predation dynamics in a large carnivore community. Communications Biology, 8(1), 424. Stempniewicz et al. 2021. Yes, they can: polar bears Ursus maritimus successfully hunt Svalbard reindeer Rangifer tarandus platyrhynchus. Polar Biology, 44(11), 2199-2206. Þórisson SG. 2018. Population dynamics and demography of reindeer (Rangifer tarandus L.) on the East Iceland highland plateau 1940–2015 A comparative study of two herds (Doctoral dissertation). Tremblay et al. 2025. Patterns and temporal trends in canine breakage and scarring in Western Hudson Bay polar bears (Ursus maritimus). PloS one, 20(3), e0319753. White, S. C., Shores, C. R., & DeGroot, L. (2020). Cougar (Puma concolor) predation on northern mountain caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou) in central British Columbia. The Canadian Field-Naturalist, 134(3), 265-269. March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 175 SPOTLIGHT PUMA It's little wonder that mountain lions feature regularly in March Mammal Madness. They have the widest geographical range of any wild mammal in the western hemisphere, ranging across diverse habitats. And because of that wide range, they've interacted with many human cultures, earning more common names than any other species. Indeed, under one or more of their names they are one of the most common school mascots in the US! Even though we know all that, people in the US still hunt mountain lions. Only in Florida and California are mountain lions protected from hunters, thanks to federal endangered species protections in one and a statewide voter effort in the other. And even in states without hunting, human activities are the biggest causes of death for America's lion. Hunting can kill as much as a quarter of some state's adult mountain lions each year, while many others are run over by cars or poisoned with pesticides. Unfortunately, across the early history of European colonization of the Americas, attitudes were less friendly to America's lion. Bounties, trapping, poisons, and intense hunting with hounds wiped the species out in all of eastern North America aside from the Everglades. Populations in the western US and Canada also suffered. Fortunately, our society took a new attitude toward carnivores as the environmental movement grew, and by the 1970s, most states with mountain lion populations had restricted hunting, and their populations grew back to levels in those states near what they once were. Mountain lion breeding populations have even returned to North Dakota, South Dakota, and Nebraska. At the Mountain Lion Foundation, we keep mountain lions safe where they already live, or recover in areas where they were wiped out. With the help of regular folks of all ages, we talk to lawmakers and ranchers and hunters, finding new ways to help people and mountain lions live peacefully side by side. Sign up for action alerts on our website, and read through it for other resources so you can speak out for mountain lions where you live! -Josh Rosenau Director of Policy & Advocacy Mountain Lion Foundation A century ago, people thought carnivores were bad to have around, and part of the point of hunting was to wipe out the cougars and wolves and bears. Now we know that carnivores like cougars play an essential role in ecosystems. By one count, mountain lions have more ecological connections to other species than any other carnivore in the world. Anything that affects them, affects the entire ecosystem! Having mountain lions around is good for wildlife and wild lands. March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 177 GENETICS SPOTLIGHT An Interview with Professor Anne Stone and coyotes show up, they were sufficiently distinct that we don’t see any evidence of hybridization or gene flow between dire wolves and other canids. The dire wolf project is also a great example of how such research is often the result of work from many labs….ancient DNA is tricky! The undergraduate student and postdoc in my lab who worked on this project analyzed 19 samples and NONE of them worked (UGH!!!) but we pooled our efforts with several other groups and ultimately recovered dire wolf genome data. Katie Hinde: Thank you for being with us today Prof. Stone! You have conducted decades of incredible genetics research with amazing teams of collaborating scientists from Neandertals to Chimpanzees to Bermudian land snails to Marmosets. But also… DIRE WOLVES! Can you tell us some of the cool things about what we’ve learned from the DIRE WOLF genome? Anne Stone: Sure! The dire wolf project was amazing because we found that they were actually quite different from grey wolves…which we did not expect since they look fairly similar morphologically. The DNA data showed that they actually diverged from other wolves almost 6 million years ago and were isolated from them in the Americas. Then by the time that grey wolves KH: You’ve also done incredible work on the impact of infectious diseases like the leprosy and tuberculosis in ancient human populations! How and when did Tuberculosis reach human populations in what is now called South America? March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 178 GENETICS SPOTLIGHT AS: SEALS!!!!! We analyzed TB genomes from ancient South Americans who had skeletal evidence of TB (they had lesions in their spine that was typical of chronic TB) and found that the TB in the Americas prior to European contact was caused by Mycobacterium pinnipedii (I.e. seal TB). This probably jumped into humans when they butchered hunted seals or ate undercooked meat. We are now studying how this moved to other parts of the Americas pre-European contact (likely from human to human) and how/when these strains were replaced by European TB strains after contact. findings from genetic data are so cool that I love to share this information with everyone (and this is such a fun way to do so!) KH: How do folks go about creating the genetics tweets for the tournament? AS: Personally my go to is the PubMed article database from the NIH National LIbrary of Medicine’s National Center for Biotechnology Information. I usually start with a search that is “species name” AND DNA. This usually gives me a bunch of leads about studies related to genetic diversity with the species, phylogenetic relationships and adaptations. If there is very little about a species, I can usually dig up something about their chromosomes (i.e. karyotypes). The most infamous species in MMM history though was the African wild (warty?) pig….there was literally NOTHING and it kept winning! I ended up talking a lot about other suids and high level relationships in that group! KH: Is there anything people should know about handling wild armadillos in the United States? AS: DO NOT HANDLE ARMADILLOS!!! Sadly armadillos picked up Hansen’s disease (AKA leprosy) from humans at some point since European contact. Armadillos have a lower body temperature that M. leprae, which causes leprosy likes, and now cases of human leprosy in US citizens often trace back to contact with armadillos! My lab is studying whether other wild animals in the Americas carry M. leprae as well. KH: You’ve built a fantastic genetics team of not only brilliant scientists, but GREAT people. What makes you proudest/most enthusiastic about this group of collaborators on MMM? KH: 2025 is the 10th Tournament of March Mammal Madness with the Genetics TeaMMM sharing incredible information about the genetics, genomics, and phylogeny about the combatants. Tell us about your motivation for creating this awesome element within MMM. AS: It really is a great group of people who have been very generous with their time! They are really dedicated to talking about terrific research in an accessible way to explain why the genetic research is interesting and important. AS: Genetics tells us so much about the relationships among species in the tree of life and how they have adapted to their environments. It is also key to conservation strategies. Basically, the March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 179 GENETICS SPOTLIGHT KH: In the next 10 years, what do you see as the most essential contributions we’ll need from the world’s geneticists? KH: What combatant do you really wish we would have in MMM, or have again, as a combatant, and WHY? AS: The sheer number of genomes that are being generated both within species to understand the diversity and adaptation to different environments and among species (i.e. comparative genomics) that helps us understand how genomes work as well as relationships and patterns of hybridization is truly amazing. These will aid in everything from personalized medicine and drug/vaccine development to conservation. AS: Hmmm, I always love to write about primates and I did love the dire wolf! To be honest, I just love learning about the huge variety of species that are in MMM! KH: Thank you so much for theses perspectives and creating this incredible Genetics TeaMMM element within March Mammal Madness! March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 180 BLUESKY BANTER March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 181 COMBATANT ARTWORK Valeria Pellicer! ko-fi.com/veppart www.vpellicerart.com Olivia Pellicer! ko-fi.com/opellisms www.opellisms.com Mary Casillas Freisner! ko-fi.com/marycasillas marycasillas.wix.com/paintings Charon Henning! ART DIRECTOR ko-fi.com/oddangel www.charonhenning.com March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 182 CURRENT BRACKET SCORING GINKGO & RHIZZO: If player picked either Ginkgo or Rhizzo to advance, either counts as a win. Provide CERTIFICATE to any students who called the SYMBIOSIS ADVANCE :-D The ONLINE MMMBrackets and POOLS-by-Round have been accounting for the Ginkgo-Rhizzo shenanigans, so those scores are up to date. Mr. Brunstrum’s Contest Manager bracket awards points for Ginkgo pick, so teachers will have to manually add points for students/players who picked Rhizzo. March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 183 REACH & IMPACT 184 Tournament Reach MARCH MAMMAL MADNESS BIGGER THAN EVER! In 2025, over 10,600 educators had requested tournament materials and report plans to share the MMM bracket with 1,020,000+ learners. March Mammal Madness. Educators using MMM come from around the world, traffic to the LibGuide from over half a million users originated from >115 countries across Eurasia, Americas, Africa, & Oceana. In the USA, MMM is used by educators in all 50 states, 4000+ cities/towns, and in over half of all counties (N=1724/3143, 55%). And use of MMM matches distribution of the US population. USA Geographic Distribution of Educators Requesting MMMaterials. Latitude and longitude locations, centered by postal zip code. ‘18 ‘19 ‘20 ‘21 ‘22 ‘23 ‘24 ‘25 Educator survey conducted according to protocol STUDY00007542, MOD00024968 approved by ASU IRB. Thank you to all survey participants! Map Image by K. Hinde, special thanks to Marc Kissel & Matt Toro. Great White Shark marks 2024 CHAMPIONSHIP “victory” location. March Mammal Madness is an Open Educational Resource CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 created annually by an Autonomous Collective 185 Challenges & Opportunities ● Many people are unfamiliar with the diversity of species in the tree of life, their evolutionary relationships, and dynamic interactions within ecosystems. ● Most scientific knowledge is unavailable to the general public; even open access papers are hidden behind a “paywall of jargon.” ● Socioeconomic disparities widen education gaps as some school districts have limited resources for science education. ● Underfunded schools have fewer opportunities for student experiences in nature, exposure to animals, or engagement with scientists. ● Educators are overburdened and burning out, with an increasing percentage of educators leaving the profession annually. ● There is a dearth of scalable, open educational STEAM materials from academic scientists for educators to adopt that engage learners & educators across educational settings. 186 Humans Are Story Learners ● HUMANS ARE SOCIAL LEARNERS We most readily learn from people who are perceived as knowledgeable, successful, have shared identities, and to whom we have access. ● NATURE IS GRIPPING TO HUMAN MINDS We have cognitive biases to learn about animals and nature, especially children and particularly about dangerous animals and toxic plants. ● STORIES ARE OFTEN ABOUT ANIMALS Animals feature prominently in many oral traditions, stories, fables, and folklore. Traditional stories often include information for avoiding predators, successful hunting, safe navigation, and social behaviors for cooperation. Analysis of hundreds of fairy tales identified four fairy tales in the last common ancestor of Proto-Indo-European languages, 5000 years ago. All four were about animals or creatures. ● HUMANS ARE STORYTELLERS & ● ART, GAMES, & EXCITEMENT IMPROVE ‘STORYLISTENERS” Our bodies and LEARNING Long-term retention of science minds are adapted for language, culture, is enhanced by arts-integrated instruction. cooperation, & our control of fire allowed Learning embedded in games or other human social groups extended hours of approaches that generate excitement also fireside socializing and storytelling. “Stories, improve learning outcomes. proverbs, and anecdotes are cultural tools used in Indigenous communities to teach children about their environment.” -Harriet ● UNIVERSITIES & LIBRARIES Mutonyi INSTRUMENTAL AGAINST MISINFORMATION Researchers, ● STORIES IMPROVE LEARNING Through Professors, and Librarians are at the narratives, learners are transported across forefront, teaching information literacy skills, time and space, experience emotions, and curating information portals for more reliable make inferences. Information in story-form is search results, and navigating the easier and faster to understand, knowledge landscape. remembered better, and inconsistencies are more easily detected. Narrative-centered learning promotes learner interest, An exc iting tourna perception of control, and self-efficacy. m ent of animal presen s, ted in Story by expe rt with il scientists, l experie ustration, nced so cially, is bang arang for le arning ! Reviewed in Invited flagship debut article in new eLife Series on Education and Outreach: Hinde et al. 2021. March Mammal Madness and the power of narrative in science outreach. Elife. 10: e65066. 187 FORMAL LEARNING SETTINGS Conventional 4-Year College Community College High School Middle School Elementary School Special Populations Alternative Schools Clinically-Intensive Residential Elementary Institute Home School Co-Op International Schools Charter Schools Private Religious Schools Juvenile Correctional Facility Adult Special Education Services Adult Correctional Facility March Mammal Madness is adopted widely in formal & informal learning settings. Pools are routinely initiated among coworkers, friends, family, and other social groups of all ages to generate extensive COMMUNITAS. Players have self-described the following contexts for playing MMM: INFORMAL LEARNING SETTINGS Adult-Oriented Animal Center Atheletics Team BioTech Company Renewable Energy Company Career Tech Center College Dorm Conservation Non-Profit Fantasy Football League International Wildlife Rehabilitation Council Government Agency National Primate Research Center Psychiatric Facility California Department of Fish & Wildlife Staff Aquarium Staff Zoo Staff Natural History Museum Staff State Science Council Science Teachers Club at Teaching College ASU Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College Staff General Public Aquarium Community Center Science Museum Nature Center Science Center Public Library State Park Library Stem Lab Zoo Youth-Oriented 4-H Youth Programs Afterschool Program Boys and Girls Club Children's Library Girl Scouts Science Club Upward Bound Youth Outdoor Club “Many more communities and potential communities exist, ready and waiting to interact. Take just the extraordinary example of March Mammal Madness which draws a large and diverse audience into mammalian biology through a broad range of media but particularly a simulated tournament. ‘Outreach’ is entirely the wrong word for a project like this, which has to be much more all-encompassing than simple extension.” -Thrift, N. (2022). So what is a research university? In The Pursuit of Possibility. 213-240. Policy Press. 188 In 2025, educators submitted 1000+ art pieces from their learners and classrooms! In the following pages, we have curated a showcase from MMM community members of all ages, but this represents only a fraction of the submissions. Thank you for making MMM even more vibrant! 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 Extra special shout out to the Digital Media Creatives at Bridgewater College for their amazing “real time” & post-battle artwork! Thank you: Amir Suboh Lillian Hayden Tony Lucy Grayson Preece 198 teaMMMwork 2013-2025 March Mammal Madness is made possible, year after year, by the extensive volunteer efforts of dozens of scientists, librarians, educators, conservationists, and artists. The specific contributors, and their contributions, vary from year to year, but the expertise, creativity, talents, skills, and insights each has brought to the tournament have carried forward into the extravaganza of performance science that is March Mammal Madness. Katie Hinde PhD Arizona State University MMM Founding Director MMM ART TEAM Charon Henning, BIS Scientific Illustrator MMM Art Director Combatant Art & The Rundown Mary Casillas, BS Science Teacher & Illustrator Olivia Pellicer, BFA Character Animator 199 Valeria Pellicer, BFA Science Illustrator ART TEAM cont. Will Nickley, MFA Department of Design The Ohio State University Bracket Design Jeanne Dietrick Director/Writer/Puppeteer BE Creative LLC MC Marmot Kirk Manegold ASU Library The Rundown Katie Hinde Arizona State University Logos & Layout Rundown Albert Chen, PhC Cyn Rudzis Milner Center of Evolution Combatant Art University of Bath Combatant Phylogeny Brain Easterling Producer/Editor/Puppeteer BE Creative LLC MC Marmot Matt Harp ASU Library The Rundown Sierra Schuman ASU Library The Rundown 200 Kathryn Claypool ASU Library The Rundown Gayle Tomimbang ASU Library The Rundown Library TEAM Anali Perry, MLIS Scholarly Comm Librarian Arizona State University Library Team Director Anthony Costantini Open Scholarship Intern Arizona State University LibGuide & Image Sourcing Debbie Flitner Web Developer Sr Arizona State University LibGuide Katie Hinde PhD BioAnthropologist Arizona State University LibGuide Marilyn Murphy Communications Specialist Arizona State University LibGuide Karalyn Ostler STEM Librarian Arizona State Unv LibGuide Emily Rocha Open Scholarship Intern Arizonat State University Image Sourcing Olivia Sparks STEM Librarian Arizona State University LibGuide Abbie Thacher Open Scholarship Intern Arizona State Univiversity LibGuide William Yates Open Scholarship Intern Arizona State University Image Sourcing 201 Curricula TEAM Jenna Kissel Watauga Public Library MMM Education Coordinator Combatant Info Slides & Tara Chestnut, PhD Park Ecologist Mt. Rainier National Park Curricular Design Katie Hinde PhD BioAnthropologist Arizona State University Curriculum & Stephanie Manka, PhD NC Museum of Natural History Curricular Design Terri McElhinny, PhD Natural Sciences Michigan State University Leson Plans Laura BrubakerWittman, PhC Dept. of Anthropology Boston University Combatant Info Slides Chloe Josefson, PhD Laurie Kauffman, PhD Kaitlyn Murphy, PhC Retired Primatologist Combatant Info Slides Biological Sciences Auburn University Combatant Info Slides Lorelei Patrick, PhD Julia Berliner Biological Sciences University of Idaho Combatant Info Slides & Sports Summaries Biology Department Natural Sciences Fort Hays State University UT Austin Combatant Info Slides Combatant Info Slides 202 Miguel Rubio-Godoy, PhD Parasitologist Instituto de Ecología Spanish Translation K-12 EDUCATORS Curricula TEAM cont. Alejandra Núñez de la Mora, PhD Instituto de Investigaciones Psicológicas Univ Veracruzana Spanish Translation Jessica Popescu Student Recruitment Coordinator Research College of Nursing MMMletsgo! Mr. Ian Hecht, M.Ed École St. Gerard MMM Trading Cards Mr. Jeff Brunstrum Jacobs High School Online MMM Bracket Ms. Kaitlyn Faust Kankakee Valley HS MMM Presentation Ms. Jennifer Gabrys Detroit Country DS MMM Trailer Emma Wilcocks, MPH Environmental Health Harvard Schl Public Health MMMletsgo! Melanie Beasley, PhD Dept of Anthropology Purdue University Sports Summaries Ms. Robin Coffman Lakeview Middle School MMM Presentation Connor Fox Ditelberg Emerson College MMMletsgo! Margaret Janz, MA Great Parks of Hamilton County Sports Summaries Jessica Martin, BA US Air Force & ASU Sports Summaries 203 Ms. Madeline Sinnott Hudson Comm. School MMM Presentation Kate Lesciotto, PhD College Osteopathic Medicine Sam Houston State University Sports Summaries GENETICS TEAM Anne Stone, PhD School of Life Sciences Arizona State University Genetics Team Director Eduardo Amorim PhD Dept. of Biology California, Northridge Genetics Team Director Ellie Armstrong, PhD Evolution, Ecology, and Organismal Biology UC Riverside Elinor Karlsson, PhD Bioinformatics & Integrative Biology UMass Medical School Lucas R Moreira, PhD Dept. of Genomics & Comparative Biology UMass Medical School Nate Upham, PhD School of Life Sciences Arizona State University Arielle Fogel, PhD Department of Molecular Biology & Genetics Cornell University Carlos Chavez Ramirez Biological Sciences University of Chicago STAGE MANAGER Fernando Villanea, PhD Dept of Anthropology Univ Colorado Boulder Melissa Wilson, PhD Jesse Weber, PhD Dept of Integrative Biology School of Life Sciences Arizona State University Univ Wisconsin-Madison 204 Rick Moore, PhD Center for Teaching & Learning Washington University STL Narration TEAM Chris Anderson, PhD Evolutionary Biologist Dept. of Biological Sci Dominican University MMM Division Director Gretchen Andreasen Ecologist, Dept of Biology Univ Notre Dame Alyson Brokaw, PhD Mammalogist Dept. of Biological Sci Lehigh University Tara Chestnut, PhD Ecologist National Forest Service Mauna Dasari PhD Josh Drew PhD, FRGS Patrice Connors PhD Wildlife Microbiologist Marine Biologist Mammalogist Dept of Biological Sci Dept of Environmental Biol Dept of Biological Sciences University of Pittsburgh State University New York Colorado Mesa University MMM Division Director Lara Durgavich, PhD BioAnthropologist Dept. of Anthropology Boston University Katie Hinde PhD BioAnthrologist Human Evolution & Social Change Arizona State University Chloe Josefson, PhD Yara Haridy, PhD Paleontologist Dept. Organismal Biol University of Chicago Anne Hilborn PhD Wildlife Biologist Dept of Fish & Wildlife State of California 205 Biological Sciences University of Idaho Narration TEAM cont. Marc Kissel PhD PaleoAnthropologist Dept of Anthropology Appalachian State U MMM Division Director Danielle Lee PhD Mammalogist Dept of Biological Sci SIE-Edwardsville Kristi Lewton, PhD Evolutionary Morphologist Jessica Light, PhD Mammalogist Dept. of Integrative Anatomical Sci Dept. of Ecol & Cons Biology Univ of Southern California Texas A&M MMM Division Director Erin Rowland-Schaefer, PhD Mallika Sarma, PhD Human Biologist Educational Biologist Human Spaceflight Lab Dept. of Environmental Studies Dept. of Biology Johns Hopkins Med UC Santa Cruz Middle Tennessee State U MMM Division Director Jo Varner, PhD Wildlife Microbiologist Dept of Biological Sci Colorado Mesa Univ Melissa Wilson, PhD Evolutionary Biologist School of Life Sciences Arizona State University Kwasi Wrensford Mammalogist Integrative Biology UC Berkeley 206 2025 Guest NarratoR Asia Murphy, PhD Wildlife Biologist Brian Tanis PhD Mammalogist Dept of Biology Oregon State U-Cascades Solomon David, PhD Ecologist, Dept of Fisheries, Wildlife, & Conservation Biol University of Minnesota SpECIAL THANKS Beyond the teaMMM who create the tournament each year, March Mammal Madness is made possible through the direct contributions of numerous entities and organizations. We thank each and every one for their contributions to celebrating and protecting the natural world, scientific discovery, and public learning. IMAGE LIBRARY In 2025, Oxford University Press, in collaboration with March Mammal Madness, once again curated a special collection of articles of combatants freely available to the general public. The flagship journals of the American Society of Mammalogists, Journal of Mammalogy and Mammalian Species featured prominently in these MMM collections. 207 SpECIAL THANKS Perennial appreciation to Animal Diversity Web by the University of Michigan Museum of Zoology, International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), PhyloPic 2.0, and Wikipedia and their communities for the incredible resources made freely available to the learning public. Thank you for your indirect contributions to the success of March Mammal Madness. Awesome colleagues at museums, zoos, aquariums, and science centers bring so much special creativity and joy in playing March Mammal Madness. We thank them for celebrating the species, their ecosystems, and this tournament. 208 HUZZAH TEAMMM The Weird and Wonderful World of Bats: Demystifying These Often-Misunderstood Creatures By Alyson Brokaw from Timber Press Charon Henning taught her first Natural History Illustration class through AccessCVU in Hinesburg, VT! The National Association of Biology Teachers recognized Jessica Popescu with the Outstanding Biology Teacher Award of Missouri! Carlos Chavez Ramirez started his PhD program in Zoology at the University of Florida! Erin Rowland-Schaefer Alyson Brokaw joined the Environmental joined the Biology Program at Conservation and Neuroscience University of Nebraska Omaha Programs at Cedar as an Assistant Professor! Crest College as an Assistant Professor! 209 What is March Mammal Madness? A Look at the Internet Phenomenon. Sports Illustrated March 2025 'Who Would Win?': March Mammal Madness is underway. Here's everything players need to know. USA Today March 2024 March Mammal Madness Wants To Hear You Roar NPR Science Friday March 2023 Points are just a score, but in March Mammal Madness, if you're learning, you're winning The Current CBC March 2023 ‘March Mammal Madness’ Brings Simulated Animal Fights to Huge Audiences Scientific American February 2021 Missing The NCAA Tourneys? Try March Mammal Madness WBUR March 2020 This is the March Office Pool for Nerds Who Love Animals Washington Post March 2018 “MMM is full of educationally fascinating twists and turns!” National Geographic Education March 2018 “But what if faculty members could harness the excitement of March Madness and channel it into a learning device?” Chronicle of Higher Education March 2017 “March Mammal Madness may be more thrill -packed than the NCAA's version of March Madness” NPR Goats & Soda March 2017 Mammals face off in Twitter battles for supremacy. Nature News March 2016 Have a Weasel in Your Bracket? Fans Go Mad for Mammals. March tournament puts animals in imaginary contests; Orca versus hyena. Wall Street Journal FRONT PAGE March 2016 MMM has “become this incredible vehicle for teaching about science, natural history and conservation" NPR Morning Edition 2015 210 LOOKING FORWARD TO 2026! We are intensely planning for 2026. And oh look, it will be 10 years since the LIBRARY TEAM built the LibGuide. K. Hinde