Pick The Winners: Elephant vs. Narwhal, Sea Turtle vs. Falcon

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Pick The Winners: Elephant vs. Narwhal, Sea Turtle vs. Falcon

Click image to expand. Now updated with Wednesday’s winners: Polar Bear and Sea Otter!

CREDIT: Dylan Petrohilos

After a short hiatus from the bracket battles yesterday, we’ve reached the end of our Elite 8 in March Sadness, ClimateProgress’ educational tournament of animals impacted by climate change and other environmental threats. For whichever animal wins, ClimateProgress will write a feature-length article exploring the story behind what’s ailing your chosen critter, and who is working to save them. Read the rules here.

We had a really, really, close battle between Polar Bear and Wolverine on Wednesday. Wolverine — a number 7 seed — had been pummeling through, but wound up being overtaken by Polar Bear by one vote! The match between Sea Otter and Seahorse drew a lot of voters, but the outcome was less close. Sea Otter will be breezing toward the Final Four, which starts on Monday.

Today, the final two winners of our Hooves & Horns and Shells & Wings divisions will go head to head, each paired with more information about the threats they’re facing. Elephant, Narwhal, Sea Turtle, Peregrine Falcon — which two will make it to the Final Four? Only your votes can decide. Vote in the embedded tweets below, on Twitter with the hashtag #CPMarchSadness, or on our Facebook page.

Elephant vs. Narwhal
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CREDIT: Shutterstock/WWF

Elephant: The tragic decline of both Asian and African elephants has been well-documented over the years. In Africa, demand for ivory and changes in land-use pose a serious threat to the species, according to the World Wildlife Fund. Asian elephants face similar threats from a growing human population, which is slowly taking away the animal’s forest habitat.

For this already-vulnerable animal, climate change is the nail in the proverbial coffin. Asian elephants are in grave danger of dying of heat stroke in Myanmar if temperatures raise even a few degrees higher than average, according to a 2013 study. Both Asian and African elephants are also threatened by water shortages brought on by drought, and hot, dry weather is particularly risky for elephants, since they rely on splashing water on themselves to help regulate their temperature.

But it’s not just wild elephants facing threats. In Asia, many elephants have been domesticated for work, serving primary purposes of transporting goods and people. But now, the trade of elephant-keeping is declining, and many domesticated elephants are being mistreated or left to starve.

Narwhal: Earlier in this bracket, we have discussed how some scientists are concerned about narwhals because their diets and habitats could be reduced as Arctic oceans warm. Those warmer waters could bring in not only more commercial fishermen to compete for food, but more killer whales, which hunt narwhals.

But it’s also shifting sea ice in a rapidly changing Arctic that threatens narwhals. Narwhals depend on cracks in the sea ice — called “leads” — to breathe between dives. Because they are creatures of habit, winds, storms, and currents shift the usual locations of these leads, putting the whales at risk of drowning.

Narwhals are the “marathon runners” of the sea, according to researchers Professor Terrie Williams and Dr. Shawn Noren of the University of California, Santa Cruz. This helps them swim long distances easily, and dive deep for halibut. However, they are also relatively slow swimmers and the researchers pointed to a rapidly changing Arctic with highly mobile ice floes as threats to narwhals. “The ice has become highly mobile,” said Williams. “That makes icebergs that are too big for these animals to swim beneath, and changes the reliability of known breathing holes.”

Which huge, tusked creature would you like to learn more about? Vote below.

Which big-horned beast is best? RETWEET for Elephant, FAVE for Narwhal #CPMarchSadnessohh http://t.co/Ujlzs7x3nD pic.twitter.com/zlYdc6jtJM

— Climate Progress (@climateprogress) April 3, 2015

Sea Turtle vs. Peregrine Falcon
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CREDIT: shutterstock

Sea Turtle: When sea level rise shifts the location of the beaches sea turtles need to lay their eggs, things get harder. And because of rising temperatures, when the turtles do lay their eggs, they do so on warmer beaches. This actually causes more females to be born, which also makes things harder. The nests are also threatened by storm surge boosted by sea level rise, human development, and more extreme weather events along coastlines.

The best way for seacoast communities to protect their beaches from erosion due to sea level rise, thus far, has been to to erect barriers — but those barriers have been problematic for sea turtles. A recent University of Central Florida study found that the progress made in 30 years of sea turtle conservation success could be seriously reversed by erecting barriers, which bar the turtles from accessing the beach.

And even when the turtles aren’t trying to breed, they can’t hide from the effects of carbon pollution. Shifting ocean currents and rising acidity levels can also threaten sea grasses and other turtle food sources.

Peregrine Falcon: The biggest threats facing the Peregrine falcon — one of the fastest animals in the world — come when the birds are very young. For falcon chicks, heavy rains exacerbated by climate change can be deadly.

One 2013 study, conducted by researchers at the University of Alberta and the Université du Québec, found prolonged, heavy rains in the Arctic are causing peregrine chicks to drown or die of hypothermia when the cold rain soaks through their fluffy down coats. That kind of rain has become more frequent in the Canadian Arctic.

Typically, a mother peregrine will cover her chicks with her wings when it rains, shielding them from getting wet. But the study found more frequent rain spells are forcing some mother peregrines to give up and leave their chicks exposed to the rain. In one case, a mother who left her chicks in the rain for several hours and returned to find them visibly weakened killed both of them — the first case of infanticide ever recorded in wild peregrine falcons.

Which will advance — the slow turtle, or the fast falcon? You decide.

Shells or wings? RETWEET for Sea Turtle or FAVE for Peregrine Falcon #CPMarchSadness http://t.co/Ujlzs7x3nD pic.twitter.com/JHhNmH5viJ

— Climate Progress (@climateprogress) April 3, 2015

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TOURNAMENT UPDATES:

Day 1 – 3/19: Paws and Claws pt. 1 — Polar Bear vs. Wombat; Tasmanian Devil vs. Pangolin; (voting closed) WINNERS: Polar Bear and Pangolin.

Day 2 – 3/20: Paws and Claws pt. 2 — Lemur vs. Koala; Panda vs. Wolverine (voting closed) WINNERS: Koala and Wolverine.

Day 3 – 3/23: Fins and Flippers — Sea Lion vs. Sea Horse; Penguin vs. Manatee; Walrus vs. Sea Otter; Whale vs. Salmon (voting closed) WINNERS: Sea Horse, Sea Otter, Whale, and Penguin.

Day 4 – 3/24: Horns and Hooves — Elephant vs. Horned Lizard; Rhino vs. Narwhal; Saola vs. Moose; Mountain Goat vs. Reindeer (voting closed) WINNERS: Elephant, Narwhal, Moose, and Mountain Goat.

Day 5 – 3/25: Shells and Wings — Sea Turtle vs. Pelican; Sage Grouse vs. Peregrine Falcon; Oyster vs. Butterfly; Lobster vs. Red Knot (voting closed) WINNERS: Sea Turtle, Falcon, Butterfly, Red Knot.

Day 6 – 3/26: Polar Bear vs. Pangolin; Koala vs. Wolverine (voting closed) WINNERS: Polar Bear, Wolverine.

Day 7 – 3/27: Sea Horse vs. Whale; Sea Otter vs. Penguin (voting closed) WINNERS: Sea Horse, Sea Otter.

Day 8 – 3/30: Elephant vs. Mountain Goat; Moose vs. Narwhal (voting closed) WINNERS: Elephant, Narwhal.

Day 9 – 3/31: Sea Turtle vs. Red Knot; Butterfly vs. Peregrine Falcon (voting closed) WINNERS: Sea Turtle, Peregrine Falcon.

Day 10 – 4/1: Polar Bear vs. Wolverine; Sea Horse vs. Sea Otter (voting closed) WINNERS: Polar Bear, Sea Otter.

Day 11 – 4/3: Elephant vs. Narwhal; Sea Turtle vs. Peregrine Falcon (voting NOW OPEN)

Day 12 – 4/6: THE FINAL FOUR: TBD

Day 13 – 4/7: THE CHAMPIONSHIP: TBD