Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #2020MMM
Most recents (18)
Are you having trouble filling out your #2022MMM Bracket? Too hard to make decisions? What's a Sneak of Weasels and can they beat a Glaring of Cats? (That one is easy: No)
DON’T PANIC
Grab your towel and follow along with Professor Bobcat’s March Mammal Madness Manifesto
DON’T PANIC
Grab your towel and follow along with Professor Bobcat’s March Mammal Madness Manifesto
First up, reach down for that confidence and remember that this is YOUR bracket and you don’t have to let anybody else make you second guess.
Why am I saying this?
Because if you’re reading #2022MMM advice from an Internet Bobcat you’ve got some issues, Biped.
Why am I saying this?
Because if you’re reading #2022MMM advice from an Internet Bobcat you’ve got some issues, Biped.
Next up, you’ve got your essential #2022MMM decision to make with that newfound mesopredator level confidence:
Are you going with your head or your heart?
If the latter, you get to pick your favorites and go ahead and cheer for them, but,
Are you going with your head or your heart?
If the latter, you get to pick your favorites and go ahead and cheer for them, but,
#2021MMM
[Woman at the wheel of a truck, looking over asking "you ready?"]
[Woman at the wheel of a truck, looking over asking "you ready?"]
#2021MMM
[gif is World Wrestler jumping up on arena ropes hollering out "I SAID, ARE YOU READY?!"]
[gif is World Wrestler jumping up on arena ropes hollering out "I SAID, ARE YOU READY?!"]
TONIGHT'S BATTLE FOR #2021MMM CHAMPION HAPPENS NOW!
Having trouble filling out your #2021MMM Bracket? Too hard to make the decisions? What the heck is a Red-Rumped Agouti and can it beat a Bay Cat? (That one is easy: No)
DON’T PANIC
Grab your towel and follow along with Professor Bobcat’s Annual March Mammal Madness Manifesto!
DON’T PANIC
Grab your towel and follow along with Professor Bobcat’s Annual March Mammal Madness Manifesto!
First up, reach down for that confidence and remember that this is YOUR bracket and you don’t have to let anybody else make you second guess.
Why am I saying this?
Because if you’re reading #2021MMM advice from an Internet Bobcat? You’ve got some issues, Biped.
Why am I saying this?
Because if you’re reading #2021MMM advice from an Internet Bobcat? You’ve got some issues, Biped.
Next, you’ve got your essential #2021MMM decision to make with that newfound mesopredator level confidence:
Are you going with your head or your heart?
If the latter, you get to pick your favorites and go ahead and cheer for them, but,
Are you going with your head or your heart?
If the latter, you get to pick your favorites and go ahead and cheer for them, but,
FIRST UP: #2 SEED FLORIDA PANTHER (PUMA CONCOLOR CORYI) VERSUS AMPHIBIAN CHYTRID FUNGUS (BATRACHOCHYTRIUM DENDROBATIDIS) Photos: @FWS & Rob O’ Sullivan #2020MMM
Whether you call it a panther, puma, cougar, or mountain lion - Puma concolor means lion-of-one-color. Panthers are shades of tan, coryi subsp. is darker brown to rust & kittens are gray w/ dark brown/blackish spots & five bands around the tail. fws.gov/refuge/florida… #2020MMM
Mountain lions are one of the most widespread felids in the Americas. Rangewide @IUCN ranks them as Least Concern but the coryi subspecies has been listed by @USFWS as an endangered species since 1967. fws.gov/refuge/florida… #2020MMM
Are you a parent trying to find activities for kids home from school? Or someone stuck at home looking for fun distractions? Here are some fun, free science and nature resources you can use at home. I’ll be adding to this list over time.
You—yes, you!—can do real science from home! Check out Zooniverse, a website for crowd-sourced citizen science projects. Listen to baby noises, transcribe Arctic plant collections, help locate black holes, and more! zooniverse.org
Check out @inaturalist! Go for a hike, and photograph plants, animals, and fungi and upload Geo-tagged photos. @seekbyinat helps with IDs. You can submit observations even if you don’t know what you found! Data are used for real biodiversity monitoring. inaturalist.org
LAST UP: No. 8 seed Finlayson's Squirrel (Callosciurus finlaysonii) vs No. 9 seed Kowari (Dasyuroides byrnei) #2020MMM
Finlayson's Squirrel is our 3rd #TeamRodent of the night. These "beautiful squirrels" (but aren't they all??) are quite lovely with highly variable coat colors ranging from all white to all black to all red (Boonkhaw et al. 2017 bit.ly/338Fnb0) #2020MMM
In fact, Callosciurus is Greek for beautiful ('callo'), shadow ('skia'), & tail ('oura') (Borror 1960 bit.ly/2THQeWn). Finlayson's Squirrel are #smol squirrels (1.3 stoats #StoatsAsMeasurements), found in the trees (arboreal) in southeast Asia rainforests #2020MMM
NEXT UP: #7 Southern African Hedgehog (Atelerix frontalis) vs #10 Collared Pika (Ochotona collaris)!!! #2020MMM (Battle written with input from @PKurnath!)
Collared pikas are gray, potato-sized, herbivorous lagomorphs native to Yukon Territory & Alaska. Being roughly spherical and #SuperFLOOF-y means the pika is a pro at conserving heat in these cold climates. #2020MMM
NEXT UP: 6th seed Island Fox vs. 11th seed Gray-bellied shrew opossum! #2020MMM
The island Fox is endemic to the Channel Islands, an archipelago of 8 islands off the coast of California. The foxes are about the size of a house cat, w/ greyish to honey brown & red fur. They eat mice, insects, birds, & fruit tinyurl.com/shz6r8m #2020MMM
You might be wondering, what is a cute smol fox doing in a place like this? Scientists aren't sure! Some think they were introduced to the island by Indigenous People while others think the 'rafted' across before humans arrived at the islands tinyurl.com/tuk43fp #2020MMM
NEXT UP: 4th seeded Tree Hyrax (Dendrohyrax dorsalis) vs. 13th seeded Bank Vole (Myodes glareolus) #2020MMM
Though 'Hyrax' comes from the Greek 'Hurax', meaning "shrewmouse", our combatant the Western Tree Hyrax is much larger than either of these namesake rodents, reaching lengths up to 2 feet and weighing up to 4.5 kg (~20 stoats). #StoatsAsMeasurement #2020MMM
The fur of the Tree Hyrax is primarily gray-brown, but it has a distinct "dorsal spot" -- a scent gland covered by a lighter patch of hair -- on its back. As its name suggests, it is an adept climber, aided by flat nails and the rubbery texture of its feet. #2020MMM
NEXT UP: Raccoon Dog (#3) vs. Northern Short-tailed Shrew (#14)!!!! #2020MMM
Raccoon Dogs are omnivores native to Eastern Asia. Despite the characteristic black bandit mask & brown fur, they are actually not closely related to raccoons! Their common name is half correct though, they are closely related to foxes. #2020MMM
While Raccoon Dogs are smol (~70cm long or 2.3 stoats), they make up for it with floof! Their characteristic long and silky brown fur can provide greater insulating warmth than arctic foxes! #2020MMM
NEXT UP: #2 Southern pudu (Pudu puda) vs #15 Seba's short-tailed fruit bat (Carollia perspicillata) #2020MMM
The short-tailed fruit bat is a medium brown, leaf-nosed bat found in forest through Central America and most of South America (ranges from southern Mexico to southern Brazil) #2020MMM
This small but mighty fruit bat weighs in at about 20 grams (or ~1/10 of a stoat #StoatsAsMeasurement). But size isn't everything! These bats have a secret athletic talent hiding up their wing - BOXING! #TinyTerrors #2020MMM
LAST BATTLE: 8th-seeded Red Panda (Ailurus fulgens) versus 9th-seeded Spotted Linsang (Prionodon pardicolor) #2020MMM
Our last #TeamDogsish competitor is the Red Panda, a small-to-medium sized carnivore (5kg/11lbs/23stoats) recognizable for its white face, red-ish back & long tail with red-and-buff colored rings #StoatsAsMeasurement #FLOOF #2020MMM
Red Pandas have round heads, large pointed ears, & their bodies are covered with woolly hair (even the soles of their feet!) as an adaptation to their cold, native climates at high elevations #MoreFLOOF #2020MMM animaldiversity.org/accounts/Ailur…
NEXT UP: 7th seeded Tayra (Eira barbara) VS 10th seeded Falanouc (Eupleres goudotii) #2020MMM
Bushdog, irara, gato negro, perro de monte, lepasil, tayra. Our first combatant is a #MustelidofManyNames - every country in its range has their own name. The genus alludes to this: Eira is Guarani [indigenous language spoken by peoples of Bolivia/Paraguay] for tayra. #2020MMM
Found throughout Central and South America, the tayra [common name in Colombia] is one of the most common carnivores in its range since it can live near humans in smaller (or more fragmented) habitats. The IUCN currently lists them as "Of Least Concern". #2020MMM ![An IUCN map showing the tayra's range. The tayra is of]()
" src="/images/1px.png" data-src="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ES37FcVXgAMwQTs.png">
" src="/images/1px.png" data-src="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ES37FcVXgAMwQTs.png">
A Madagascar exclusive (a la Vulpix to Pokemon Red) & listed as Vulnerable by the IUCN, the #FierceFossa is an awesome representative of the endemic Eupleridae fam that can get up to 31.5 inches or 2.4 stoats long! #2020MMM #StoatsAsMeasurement
Coming up against the cool af fossa is the (admittedly neat cuz it’s a mustelid) greater grison! If you're lucky, you can find this 1.79 stoats long #GrizzledGremlin in a number of habitats in Central America & South America. #2020MMM #StoatsAsMeasurement
NEXT UP: #4 African Civet (Civettictis civetta) vs. #13 Kinkajou (Potos flavus) #2020MMM (And @PKurnath was a co-author of this battle!!! #Props #TeamAwesome #MyFirstBattle)
Kinkajous are brown, #Dogsish caniforms related to raccoons.They are uniquely adapted to living in trees: grasping with nimble fingers, reversible hindfeet & a prehensile tail from which they can hang upsidedown! #2020MMM #TeamDogsish
In fact, because of these traits, mammalogists originally classified kinkajous as lemurs! (They do converge with primates in their adaptations for living in trees and eating fruit!) #2020MMM #openaccess
journals.plos.org/plosone/articl…
journals.plos.org/plosone/articl…
NEXT UP: the #2 Caspian Seal vs. the #15 Common Kusimanse #2020MMM
Our first battle tonight takes us to the shores of Caspian Sea in Kazakhstan where the Caspian Seal is lounging on the shore sleeping off some herring #2020MMM
FIRST UP: No.1 seed Sloth Bear (Melursus ursinus) vs No. 16 seed & wildcard winner Pygmy Spotted Skunk (Spilogale pygmaea) #2020MMM
Our #TeamDogsish Pygmy Spotted Skunk is a #smol skunk, blackish-brown in color w/creamy-buff longitudinal stripes over most of the body. The genus name Spilogale is derived from the Greek "spilos" (spot) and "gale" (weasel) (Kinlaw 1995 bit.ly/3aOmtJ1) #2020MMM
The Pygmy Spotted Skunk is @IUCNRedList vulnerable due to rapid human encroachment on their Pacific Mexican habitat, hunting, & predation by CATS AND DOGS! #IntraOrderCarnage iucnredlist.org/species/41637/… #2020MMM
TONIGHT THE WILDCARD: Grandidier's "Mongoose" (Galidictis grandidieri) versus the Pygmy Spotted Skunk (Spilogale pygmaea)! #2020MMM
Galidictis grandidieri was recently better-recognized as a vontsira than a mongoose, but since we <3 our players, we wanted to make it easier to find research on them, hence the air quotes. #2020MMM [gif is man doing air quotes]
Often called the GIANT-striped mongoose, this black & light brown-to-cream striped Feliform typically weighs between 500-590g (an average of 2.5 stoats) #StoatsAsMeasurement #TeamCatsish #2020MMM
