March Mammal Madness is over for the MHS students, as well as everyone else, having just recently ended its 10th annual competition. 

Much like March Madness, March Mammal Madness is a competition every March, tracked with a bracket, but instead of basketball teams, 64 animals compete for the top spot. Now that it’s over, the MHS students are counting up their points.

“March Mammal Madness began with a few professors at a university putting together the idea of these competitions between species based on what we know about [them],” Science Department Head Leslie Campbell said. “So based on their behaviors, based on the environments that they live in… The outcome is based on what is known about the animals involved and their environments. Even if we don’t like the outcome, they are based in some sort of scientific fact.”

Four specific groups of animals are picked, and the organizers study the animals to guess the likelihood of an event, then use a random number generator to determine the outcome.

“They’re set up according to… themed categories,” AP Environmental Science teacher Clancey Livingston said. “One of the categories this year was animals where the female is… more dominant… And then they pit them together. It starts out they’re sort of randomly against each other, and then the winner moves on to the next round.”

At the beginning, students did research and filled out a bracket, guessing which animals would win each round, and they would get points for the ones they guessed right. The science teachers even had a competition between each other, and some classes will award the hour with the most points. Livingston’s fourth hour won the most points out of his classes, so they will receive pizza.

“I like the competitions,” senior Kealyn Lhuillier said. “I’m very competitive. I like… just seeing the different types of animals but also… how they would survive against each other, and just the stakes.”

The event allows students to learn more about animals, but in the form of an engaging competition.

“I think for the most part students really enjoy it,” Livingston said. “I love walking down the halls and hearing students talk about, ‘Oh, I had lioness winning this one and I can’t believe the skunk’s lost’… I think most people really enjoy it.”