Pride of Lionesses WIN!!!

Congratulations to Joe, our MMM 2022 Champion!

Current Rankings

Rank Name Wildcard Round 1 Sweet 16 Elite Trait Final Roar Semi Finals Final TotalPoints
1 Joe 1 25 22 12 10 8 13 91
2 Alan 1 22 16 15 15 8 13 90
3 Jan 1 21 20 18 20 8 0 88
4 Sarah 1 23 18 18 5 8 13 86
5 ReacherDude 1 22 22 12 15 8 0 80
6 Kerrlita 1 23 18 12 15 8 0 77
7 Sunflower 1 21 18 12 10 0 0 62
8 William 1 23 12 12 5 8 0 61
9 Nicole 1 22 16 15 5 0 0 59

Battle Summaries

CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND

In the FINAL BATTLE of 2022 March Mammal Madness, Grandma Orca faces the Pride of Lionesses. In Alaska, other marine mammals interact peacefully with fish-eating, resident ecotype Orcas. Minke whales and Dall’s porpoises will swim alongside resident Orcas. The porpoises & resident orca calves sometimes play together. Sadly, “the Salish Sea was once the primary source of orcas for aquariums; from 1964 to 1976, more than 50 southern resident killer whales (SRKW) were taken into captivity and sold to oceanariums and marine mammal parks throughout the world. In 1970, a killer whale named Tokitae (also Sk’aliChelh-tenaut), was captured from Penn Cove on Whidbey Island and sold to the Miami Seaquarium. For over 51 years, she has lived in the smallest orca tank in North America. She is the last surviving SRKW in captivity. For members of the Lummi Nation, whose kinship with the SRKW runs deep through their language and culture, Tokitae’s captivity is painful — she is a kidnapped relative, and they want to bring her home.” THIS FRIDAY 4/8/22 YOU CAN HELP! Virtually join Former Lummi Nation Chairman Jay Julius, Lummi fisher Ellie Kinley, cetacean expert Jeff Foster & Bonnie Swift for a panel discussion about the campaign to bring Tokitae home to Salish waters (FREE FOR YOUTH).

Since 1994’s Lion King, decline in prey abundance and habitat reduction has dropped the wild lion population down to fewer than 25,000 (~50%). Groups like Warrior Watch work to ensure there are local benefits for protecting lions. In 2017, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature announced an expansion of the Save Our Species Initiative to help connect carnivore conservation efforts & support sustainable coexistence with humans across Africa. In the 1972 natural history classic “The Serengeti Lion: A Study of Predator-Prey Relations,” George B. Schaller describes how lions within a pride are able to share LARGE kills, but conflicts over small prey can get very aggressive, as described in this scene: “A female catches a gazelle and runs with it across a shallow creek and along a thicket for 200 m, closely pursued by three lionesses. She retreats under a bush and growls while facing the others. They hesitate. Suddenly a male bounds up, crashes into the bush, and attempts to take the carcass… The female retains her hold on it, and for 15 minutes—growling, pushing, & pulling—the two crouch side by side without eating. Suddenly the body rips in half and each obtains a share.”

The combatants are MMMagically transported to the randomized habitat of the… KELP FOREST! Specifically, the Protection Island Aquatic Reserve with mixed areas of Kelp Beds and Sea Grass and the bird and marine mammal rookeries of Protection Island. Two lionesses begin walking along the salty beach, while the Last Lioness lifts her head to smell the breeze and listen. Back on Namibia’s Skeleton Coast, “the first record of lions returning to the ocean came early in 2002, when three lionesses from the Hoaruseb Pride started exploring the coastline… and swimming to islands” (Stander 2019). None of the felids notice the orca who “patrols the beach by closely following the contour of the shoreline within 15-25 feet” of the Lionesses (McInnes et al. 2020). The Lionesses begin “exploring the intertidal zone and investigating items in shallow water” (Stander 2019). From down the beach the Lionesses freeze as “a low-frequency growling builds up to a roar” (Sabinsky et al. 2017). Just beyond the shallows, a rippling wake signals the immediate acceleration of the orca toward the roar. The Lionesses go into their stalking crouch slowly moving up and over beach logs toward “Kanem Point, the westernmost tip of the island” to a preferred harbour seal (Phoca vitulina) haul out beach (McInnes et al. 2020). “The first confirmed evidence of lions utilizing marine food items along the Skeleton Coast came in March 2006 when lionesses from the Hoaruseb pride were observed feeding on a Cape fur seal on a beach” (Stander 2019).

The three lionesses sprint to attack the Harbour seals and simultaneously Orca “rushes the beach, running aground” (McInnes et al. 2020). The beach erupts in predator-induced pandemonium! Some harbour seals “flee up the beach and others entering the water” (McInnes et al. 2020)! Two lionesses follow seals fleeing up the beach, but the Last Lioness pursues a seal into the intertidal zone. Orca “arches his body and swing his flukes to maneuver himself off the beach into deeper water” (McInnes et al. 2020). Because this is a mammal-eating Bigg’s transient orca! He rejoins his pod to rush-push water at the fleeing seal and now swimming Last Lioness into deeper water above the Kelp Forest. Transient orca’s sister and mother converge “to feed on the seal, then rising vertically out of the water (“spy-hopping”) and slapping their flukes on the surface" in the excitement of the successful hunt (McInnes et al. 2020).

The mammal-eating Biggs transient orca male grasps Last Lioness’s back leg, and wrenching her knee, drags her below, playing with his prey. Two lionesses pace in the shallows of the intertidal zone staring at the sea, contact recruitment roaring for their missing sister! Biggs transient orca releases Last Lioness and lets her swim to the surface, gasping her breath. Then Bigg’s transient orca surfaces and rush swims adjacent to the lion paddling toward shore, sending her careening in his wake. Bigg’s transient orca, swings back his fluke to thrash-toss Last Lioness like “a soccer ball” (Ferguson et al. 2012), but GRANDMA ORCA COLLIDES INTO TRANSIENT ORCA AND BITES HIS FLANK!

For Protection Island sits in the Salish Sea, familiar home of Grandma Orca and her resident pod that are dominant to the transient orca pod. “A whole bunch of southern residents have suddenly surfaced in the middle of the group of transients” as the thrashing orcas fluke up white water (Pailthorp 2021). Transient pods typically avoid Resident pods, and altercations are extremely rare, but perhaps Grandma Orca is particularly aggressive toward the mammal-predator orcas as a pre-emptive strike in defense of the vulnerable grandcalf (speculation from Ford & Ellis 1998). Grandma Orca leads a phalanx of resident orcas to drive the fleeing transients closer to the beach! Grandma Orca on target toward transients surges past swimming Last Lioness, and Grandma Orca’s slipstream tumbles the Last Lioness back underwater into the tangled Kelp Forest. Fearing the risk of a beach stranding, the Bigg’s transient orcas break west from Protection Island, “swimming at high speeds, known as porpoising, out to the deeper waters” of the Strait of Juan de Fuca (Ford & Ellis 1998).

Submerged in the twisty kelp, Last Lioness struggles to kick free with her wrenched leg and manages to extricate herself from the kelp and surfaces with a gasp! Grandma Orca and the resident orca pod are hot on the flukes of the transient orcas as both pods “leave at full sprint for a mile and a half at 30 miles an hour or better”, well beyond the field of battle (Pailthorp 2021). At Protection Island, protective Grandma Orca saved the Last Lioness, even if incidentally, before departing the field of battle in pursuit of possible threats to her pod. In the intertidal zone, Last Lioness limps toward her sisters, broken kelp twisted around her body. Rushing to their briefly lost sister, the Lionesses reunion in the sea surf involves rubbing heads together and licking each other’s faces.

PRIDE OF LIONESSES ARE THE 10th ANNUAL MARCH MAMMAL MADNESS CHAMPIONS! Championship narration written by Katie Hinde, Marc Kissel, Mauna Dasari, Asia Murphy, and Tara Chestnut; summary by Melanie Beasley.