March Mammal Madness
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by
AnLand
moderator
If you’re loving our Chimp&See video footage and wildlife in general, you will love March Mammal Madness that will start next week!
Organized by assistant professor Katie Hinde and modeled after the NCAA College Basketball March Madness Championship Tournament, a competition among 64 selected mammals will take place and simulated battles will be tweeted live at twitter.com/2017MMMletsgo during March.
Although, real battles between many contestants cannot take place in reality, e.g., as they do not share the same habitat or even don't live on the same continent, the organizers use actual attributes of the species and the scientific literature to determine a likely outcome of the fight. They will talk about environment and adaptation, share interesting facts and figures, and show a huge collection of pictures and videos. It’s exciting! It’s fun! And it’s about some awesome animals!
The bracket and time schedule for 2017 has just been published, so print it out and make your choices. While determining the winners of each fight, you should take into account traits like: body weight and size, “weaponry” (e.g., teeth and claws), protective armor, running speed or ability to climb, fighting style and other attributes. As in an actual tournament, the animals are seeded according to their abilities within four thematic groups and eliminated in consecutive rounds. In 2017, these divisions are: “Desert-adapted animals” (among them #honey_badger and #patas_monkey), “Two animals / One animal”, “Coulda shoulda animal” (among them #lion and #leopard), and “Adjective animals” (among them our beloved #pouched_rat). Also – as in real life – an element of chance is included that led in the past to some strong feelings (e.g., the #catscandal).
The bracket
Click here for the full announcement with plenty of information and the bracket // Twitter // Facebook
Chimp&See does not have any role in the tournament and is in no way responsible for any undesirable outcome! But we will for sure keep an eye on the battles and try to show some of our best videos to make our point.
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