March Mammal Madness

What is March Mammal Madness (MMM)?

March Mammal Madness was inspired by the NCAA College Basketball tournament that occurs every March. Before each MMM tournament, animals are identified by the organizers of MMM. Those animals are ranked and added to that year’s bracket. The organizers of MMM then simulate competitions between the animals paired for battle, and it is your job to predict who will win before the results are released. Importantly, no animals were harmed or even handled associated with this competition!

The bracket is here! 

Download your empty bracket here.

Submit your filled out bracket here by March 7^th.

What you can win

We would love for undergraduate students, graduate students, faculty, staff, and all friends of the museum to play. Everyone is encouraged to follow along! Please consider getting your significant other, children, favorite niece or nephew, or other people you enjoy learning or competing with to help you fill out the bracket.

Prizes include museum swag of all descriptions.
The grand prize includes a $50 Amazon gift certificate.

Origins of March Mammal Madness

In 2013, Professor Katie Hinde from Arizona State University and her colleagues created and ran the first March Mammal Madness (MMM) competition. Since that time, March Mammal Madness has become a worldwide phenomenon with school children, college students, museums, professors, and other animal lovers of every background participating. This year, the Auburn University Museum of Natural History (AUMNH) will join the fun, and we invite you to participate!

You can learn more at the official site of March Mammal Madness!

To get started, follow March Mammal Madness via the AUMNH on Facebook, Twitter, and/or Instagram.
You may also follow along on the social media platforms set up by the organizer of MMM, including Facebook, Twitter (#2021MMM), YouTube, and Dr. Hinde’s blog.

Make sure you follow AUMNH on Facebook and Twitter so that you can keep up with all of the great activities at the museum.

Do I have to know a lot about mammals?

No prior knowledge of any of the animals in the competition is required, but we hope you will learn a bit about them. If you aren’t familiar with a species, look it up! There are many great resources online that you can use to learn more about the incredible diversity of animals on our planet. The organizers of MMM put a list of their favorite resources together that you can check out here. If you think mammals, other animals, or even plants are cool – consider volunteering for the museum or participating in any of AUMNH’s outreach events.

How can I play?

Follow March Mammal Madness via the AUMNH on Facebook, Twitter and/or Instagram. We will use these platforms to repost each competition’s play-by-play, send reminders of when to submit your results of each round with a link, and announce the winners of each raffle.

We will post the bracket here and on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram when it is released on February 27, 2021. Download the bracket and consider the likely outcome of each competition. Fill out your complete bracket, from round one through tournament champion, take a photo of your bracket and submit it as a .jpg or .pdf by March 7, 2021.

Here is an example.

Follow the results on Facebook, Twitter and/or Instagram, and after each round mark up your bracket, calculate your score, and submit your bracket and results. You can find the link by clicking on each submission line listed in the schedule below.

Please mark your results by circling the winners you predicted and crossing through those that did not win.

See examples below:

After round 1:

At the end of the tournament:

Calculate your score by counting the wins you predicted for the round and then multiplying that number by the number of points awarded for each correct prediction. The points for each win by round are listed by round in the middle of the bracket. For example, on the 2020 bracket, participants got one point for each win in round 1, so if someone picked 18 correct wins, that person would get a score of 18 (18 x 1). In contrast, participants got 5 points for each win in round 4, and thus, if a person had three correct predictions, they would get 15 points for the round (3 x 5). If a participant is no longer in the competition because they had no wins in the current or previous round, that person may enter 0 for their score, and they will get one entry in the raffle.

Submit your bracket and your results following each round. When you do, your name will be entered into a raffle. There will be a raffle at the end of each of the six rounds of play. The number of times your name is entered into the raffle will be determined by your score for that round. Anyone can win, but if you have a higher score, your probability of winning is higher. What if you got skunked? It happens. Please still enter your score (0), and we will still put your name on one ticket and drop it in the hat.

Schedule

Please check the schedule regularly; edits will be made as needed.

The rules

To participate, you must submit your bracket on time. No changes to your bracket can be made after initial submission. Raffles will be conducted after each round. You must participate in the current and all previous rounds to be eligible.

Auburn has a natural history museum? No way!

How do I get involved?

Please join our biodiversity team. The museum has several volunteering opportunities and participates in several citizen science programs.

Volunteer workers perform tasks vital to the maintenance and use of the museum’s collections. During their activities, volunteers gain curatorial experience, increase their familiarity with a diversity of flora and fauna, assist with ongoing research and outreach, and have the opportunity to interact with a variety of scientists and the public. For more information, or to volunteer your services, please explore our volunteering opportunities.

Citizen science programs allow the participation of everyone in the scientific process. By participating in a citizen science program, you can explore your interest in the natural world while collecting real world data and assisting with research that help us better understand and conserve our natural world. Please visit our citizen science page for more information.

Think mammals are cool and you’re a biology or wildlife major at Auburn? Consider taking Dr. Hood’s Mammalogy class (BIOL 5760). It is offered every fall.

Many thanks to Dr. Katie Hinde and colleagues for putting together this fantastic competition!
-From, the AUMNH and the Auburn Tigers!