Mammal March Madness 2016

This morning as I was looking around the web for any assistance in making my NCAA bracket picks I ran across this…

This is the Mammal March Madness 2016 bracket and I think the concept is great.

Apparently this is the 4th year the contest is being held – where have I been???

In any case, the idea is to “pit” various mammals from different categories against each other to determine a winner. The victor is determined by science research into things such as temperment, fight style, size, and other factors and moves on to the next battle just like the NCAA tournament. The fact that this is based on science and a narrative is provided for the outcome makes this a wonderful teaching opportunity.

Two of the recent battles I “watched” were the Polar Bear verses the Hoary Marmot and the Giant Flying Fox verses the Giant Forest Hog. The bear and the hog won but the battles were not as straight forward as you would think.

Each battle has a commentary on Twitter and scientific facts are related to explain the outcome. And like everything these days, people have banded together to form teams of supporters…#TeamSquirrel and #TeamHyrax among many others.

I'm looking forward to the Polar Bear – Wolverine battle if they get to face each other…they're in the same “region” so it could happen in the Elite Eight but the Wolverine needs to get past the Snow Leapord first.

The Sweet 16 runs Thursday March 17 with the Elite Trait going on Monday March 21…go check it out.

Morning Ramble 2.34