On this #IndigenousPeoplesDay learn about Traditional Ecological Knowledge as crucial for addressing our climate disaster. climatepromise.undp.org/news-and-sto... indigenousclimatehub.ca/2024/04/trad... www.usetinc.org/general/hono... Dorji et al. 2024 pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...

#2025MMM CHAMPIONSHIP EMOJI BATTLE 🐻‍❄️🆚😼:🌋🧊/🪨↔️🪨/😼🪄😤 🐻‍❄️🪄👀/😼🤫🐾/😼😤🔜 🐻‍❄️🩼🦌/🐻‍❄️🦌🏞️/🐻‍❄️🔪🦌 😼🛬🦌/😼🦷🦌/🐻‍❄️🩼↪️ 😼🩸🔊/🐻‍❄️🔉/😼🔪🦌/😼➡️ 🐻‍❄️🔊/🐻‍❄️🧍🏻🦌/🐻‍❄️🦷🦌/😼🛫 😼🏃🏽‍♂️‍➡️👋🏽/🐻‍❄️🍽️🦌/🐻‍❄️🛡️🦊 🏆🐻‍❄️

Thank you for another great season of March Mammal Madness from Genetics Team! @acstone.bsky.social @cegamorim.bsky.social @elinork.bsky.social @afogel29.bsky.social @elliecat.bsky.social @lucasrocm.bsky.social @n8upham.bsky.social @carloschalicothere.bsky.social and myself! #2025MMM

#2025MMM CHAMPION: POLAR BEAR Thank you so much for following along, and we can't wait to see you next year for #2026MMM! Remember: if you're learning, you're winning!

Until NEXT WE MEET- GOOD NIGHT & GOOD LUCK!!! #2025MMM

AND help protect Pumas! (good for nature, good for hunting dogs) #2025MMM Find out more from the Mountain Lion Foundation! mountainlion.org

THANK YOU EVERYONE for another INCREDIBLE MARCH MAMMAL MADNESS! #2025MMM Please help defend the Arctic and protect Polar Bears! www.defendthearctic.org

Though the puma didn't come out on top here, the species' resilience is unquestionable! Genetic analyses from Onorato et al. show a 20x increase in effective pop size and reduced signs of inbreeding in FL pumas after genetic rescue from Texas pumas. www.nature.com/articles/s41... #2025MMM #RIP

#2025MMM #2025MMMChampion #DivisionTuxedoStyle #TeamPolarBear Art by Olivia Pellicer @opellisms.bsky.social Mary C Freisner @maryfreisner.bsky.social Valeria Pellicer @veppart.bsky.social and Charon Henning @oddangel.bsky.social

POLAR BEAR IS THE #2025MMM CHAMPION!!!! ARTWORK by @veppart.bsky.social!

Polar Bear guards the caribou carcass, chasing away sneaky sneak Arctic foxes for TWO HOURS consuming 60% of the caribou meat!!! (Stempniewicz et al. 2021) #2025MMM

PUMA FLEES the FIELD OF BATTLE! (Krofel et al. 2012) #2025MMM

"Cougars may lose a considerable energy investment when displaced by an aggressive scavenger or may incur injuries when defending their kills" and do not fight to recover a stolen carcass from such a dominant scavenger!! (Murphy et al. 1998) #2025MMM

In some regions, at times, puma-killed ungulates can support most of bear nutritional needs- bears eavesdrop on cougars, moving toward their calls and steal their kills! #KLEPTOPARASITISM (Rabe et al. 2025; Murphy et al. 1998; Engebretsen et al. 2021; Suraci et al. 2017) #2025MMM

After all... URSIDS ROUTINELY DISPLACE PUMA FROM SUCCESSFUL KILLS!!! #2025MMM

PUMA STARES WITH POWERLESS DISDAIN AT THE CARCASS-STEALING URSID THIEF! #2025MMM

POLAR BEAR LEANS DOWN, AND WITH STILL STRONG JAWS "RIPS THE CARIBOU OPEN AND EATS ITS FLESH" SHEARING CARIBOU TISSUE WITH CARNASSIALS!! (Stempniewicz et al. 2021; Tremblay et al. 2025) #2025MMM

PUMA SPRINGS BACKWARDS FROM THE MASSIVE BEAR! #2025MMM

Polar Bear RUSH CHARGES ON THREE LEGS TO 3-POINT STAND ON THE CARIBOU CARCASS!!! #2025MMM

Male-Male Battles for Mates & Carcasses can cause significant canine breakage, especially as male polar bears reach older ages! PAPER DROPPED LAST WEEK!!! (Tremblay et al. 2025) #2025MMM

POLAR BEAR HUFF-ROARS AT PUMA SHOWING THAT THAT ONE OF HIS CANINES IS BROKEN!!!! FROM MALE-MALE BATTLES AMONG ADULT POLAR BEARS!!!! (Tremblay et al. 2025) #2025MMM

Puma keeps pulling the caribou carcass through the geothermal wetland as Polar Bear watches from a 3-point stance, holding his injured paw tucked to his chest! #2025MMM

AND the injured foreleg can not support Polar Bear's weight while he reaches with his good paw to claw-grasp-YOINK the carcass!!! #2025MMM

With his injured foreleg, Polar Bear can not reach out to grab & pull the caribou carcass... #2025MMM

Puma deploys vicious claws into the caribou carcass to hold onto the prey! #2025MMM

Polar Bear assesses the scene of inter-species competition at a carcass, Polar Bear makes huffing & jaw popping sounds of subtle, but overt aggression (Miller et al. 2015) #2025MMM

PUMA lifts his face smeared with blood gives a harsh, hissing alarmed GROWL-SNARL-SCREAM at the danger presented by the marauding Polar Bear. (Allen et al. 2016) #2025MMM

ENTER, THE POLAR BEAR! #2025MMM

With rapid tearing, Puma rips into the torso of the caribou to eat the nutrient-rich organs first when... (Alt & Eckert 2017; Murphy et al 2010) #2025MMM

PUMA bites into the caribou's throat, causing rapid hemorrhaging, and clamping tight with his jaws, crushes the caribou's trachea, suffocating the caribou quickly. (White et al. 2020) #2025MMM

PUMA SPRING-POUNCES FROM AMBUSH, BRINGING DOWN THE CARIBOU!!!!! Puma "readily consume a variety of secondary ungulate prey, such as elk, caribou, & moose" (Engebretsen et al. 2021) #2025MMM

Polar Bear's good paw claws into the caribou, but the crushed paw can't grip and the bucking caribou twists LOOSE of the Polar Bear and dashes around the rock crags!!! (Stempniewicz et al. 2021) #2025MMM

Caribou briefly stumbles AS POLAR BEAR ATTACKS!!! Grasping the caribou with clawed forepaws... #2025MMM

Caribou's peripheral vision spots the galloping Polar Bear, and taking a moment stands up... AND RUNS TOWARD THE HOT SPRINGS CREEK!!! POLAR BEAR dashes behind the fleeing prey!!" (Stempniewicz et al. 2021) #2025MMM

A large male caribou in good physical condition sits on the ground facing away from the Polar Bear, Polar Bear awkwardly gallops towards the caribou!!! (Stempniewicz et al. 2021) #2025MMM

~1500feet apart from "5-7 reindeer grazing nearby", Polar Bear "frequently lifts his head, sniffing intensely." Normally it would take the bear about 2 minutes to cover this distance, but with his injured forepaw, Polar Bear limps more slowly... (Stempniewicz et al. 2021) #2025MMM

Introduced from Scandanavia in the 1700s, several thousand reindeer/caribou wander the Eastern Fjordlands of Iceland today (Þórisson 2018) #2025MMM

On the wind, Puma sniffs the unmistakeable scent of UNGULATE, but can not see any herbivores from his position in the rock crags!!! Puma selects an ambush position... awaiting what comes around the corner! #2025MMM

Polar Bear sniffs the wind, smelling not seal... but something... MAMMAL! #2025MMM

Other than injured forepaw, Polar Bear is in PEAK CONDITION from winter ice hunting, but April is seal pup GORGING season ahead of the summer fast #SpringHyperphagy (Miller et al. 2015) Polar Bear limp tromps across the snowscape with three wide, weight distributing paws! #2025MMM

In the nearly treeless landscape, Puma creeps among the crags and cuts of the geologically dynamic area, the snowcovered lichen making no sound beneath the felid's paw pads #2025MMM

Although not native to Iceland, for hundreds of years, humans have recorded sightings of vagrant, straggler polar bears visitng from eastern Greenland. The Icelandic Institute of Natural History manages a database of these records & mapped observations! www.ni.is/en/fauna/mam... #2025MMM

NEARBY... #MMMagically translocated, Polar Bear gazes at an eerily familiar but foreign snow-covered landscape... BUT he is not the first polar bear to look upon these lands! (Kutschera et al. 2016) #2025MMM

#MMMagically translocated, Puma arrives into the rocky crags of the Eastern Highlands of Iceland and sniffs the wind smelling something... almost... familiar. #2025MMM

Or right, one thing I need to mention... TONIGHT'S BATTLE IS RATED C FOR CARNAGE!!! Graphic descriptions of predator-prey dynamics, intraguild competition, and continental drift. #2025MMM

Here in a landscape of FIRE & ICE, the very land is being RIPPED APART along the MidAtlantic Ridge as the North American plate & the Eurasian plate move apart in continental drift. By 2 centimenters a year, ICELAND IS TORN ASUNDER!!! #GeologicalCarnage #2025MMM

Specifically tonight's battle occurs in Laugavalladalur, west of the Jökulsá á Dal, some 20 km North of dam Káraghnjúkar in the Eastern Highlands of Iceland. #2025MMM

Tonight the two combatants will encounter each other in the randomly selected landscape of... THE GEOTHERMAL WETLANDS!!! #2025MMM

Microsatellites + SNPs + field data reveal a pedigree up to 6 generations for 4,449 polar bears in western Hudson Bay, Canada! It suggests that these polar bears rarely breed w/close relatives, occasionally have monozygotic twins, and sometimes adopt cubs! #2025MMM doi.org/10.1007/s00300-015-1871-0

#2025MMM #FinalRoar #TeamPolarBear Art by Charon Henning @oddangel.bsky.social and Valeria Pellicer @veppart.bsky.social