With the two new ISFL expansion teams both having animal mascots, I thought it might be interesting to draw some parallels between the animal kingdom and the potential locker room environments and team dynamics of these new additions to the league. In this article, I will give a brief overview of what I have learned from my research into silverback gorillas (New York) and fire salamanders (Berlin) mating and social habits and then hypothesize how this might translate into very different locker room dynamics and recruitment strategies for the two new teams. Here, I will associate “mating” with the growth (and improvement) of the team ranks.
New York Silverbacks:
Gorillas live in small social groups with each being led by a single “alpha male” or “silverback.” As the silverbacks (plural), New York may be setting themselves up for some clashes among many alpha males in the locker room, with multiple lead players vying for recognition and authority. However, fights within gorilla groups are rare despite significant bluster. So we might expect that, despite chronic internal strife among leaders these squabbles are unlikely to result in any sort of team blow-up. Silverback gorillas will fiercely defend their territory by intimidating rivals, so don’t be surprised to see a lot of smack talk coming from the New York expansion team.
Silverback gorillas are known for using displays of strength to attract and impress potential females from neighboring groups to join them. This means other teams should watch out for NYS, who may try to poach key players in the expansion draft and engage in trades for stars. Once female gorillas have joined the group, they must work hard to attract the attention of the silverback, especially given there are only fertile for a day or two in a year. This might mean that rookies will have only one shot to prove themselves to the New York leadership and that it might take significant effort to be heard over the infighting of the many alphas. Each gorilla pregnancy results in the birth of only one child, and each female is likely to give birth to only one baby every four to six years and only three or four over her entire lifetime. This might suggest that users recruited to the team will stay for a while rather than trying to leave during free agency. All of this makes it more likely that New York will have a closed locker room and may be selective in which prospects they invite to join.
Finally, since gorillas can breed year round, we might expect consistency in New York’s play and team dynamics across seasons. This is not likely to be the case for the other expansion team, the Berlin Fire Salamanders. Since these creatures have specific mating seasons, we might expect to see this team be streakier in its performance. What else might we learn about this other new animal addition to the league?
Berlin Fire Salamanders:
Male fire salamanders with vivid coloration have a better chance of reproducing, so we may expect some colorful characters within the Berlin locker room. Fire salamanders are one of only two species of salamander to give birth to live young; fertilized eggs develop over a 2-5 month gestation period during which time the female usually hibernates. This suggests that Berlin may prefer to leave their rookies in the DSFL for a few seasons after the draft to let them develop fully before bringing them onto the ISFL team. This doesn’t bode well for their first years as an expansion team when they don’t have the luxury of leaving rookies to fully develop. After the fire salamander gestation period, a large brood of 20-75 fully developed larvae are born and must live in an aquatic environment for 3-5 months before undergoing metamorphosis to be a terrestrial organism. This might suggest that the team will have an open locker room, inviting large cohorts of rookies each year to explore their team (with plenty of turnover). It also might suggest one potential strategy for early success in the league: drafting players from aquatic teams in the expansion draft (e.g., the Sarasota Sailfish and Honolulu Hahalua in the ISFL and the Norfolk Seawolves in the DSFL) and helping them change positions or “metamorphosize” to become a key member of the early expansion team.
Wrapping it all up, it looks like the New York Silverbacks may be better set-up to make a quick impact on the league as they attract key players from other teams through the expansion draft and displays of strength. Their locker room is likely to be full of drama with so many alpha males in one group, so if you are lucky enough to get invited it should be entertaining to follow the trash talk amongst themselves and with rival teams. And as staring is considered a brazenly flirtatious act among gorillas, I fully expect the :eyes: emote to feature prominently in the New York discord. On the other hand, the Berlin Fire Salamanders will likely need some time to come into their own. They are likely to bring in a lot of player interest into their open, welcoming, and vibrant locker room, but their players will likely need more time to mature into their own before they dazzle the league with their streaks of success.
Sources:
Nature on PBS. (2013). “Gorilla Mating Games.” Love in the Animal Kingdom series. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3431b8twU-U
BioWeb, University of Wisconsin. (2008). “Fire Salamander: Reproduction” http://bioweb.uwlax.edu/bio203/s2013/sto...uction.htm
New York Silverbacks:
Gorillas live in small social groups with each being led by a single “alpha male” or “silverback.” As the silverbacks (plural), New York may be setting themselves up for some clashes among many alpha males in the locker room, with multiple lead players vying for recognition and authority. However, fights within gorilla groups are rare despite significant bluster. So we might expect that, despite chronic internal strife among leaders these squabbles are unlikely to result in any sort of team blow-up. Silverback gorillas will fiercely defend their territory by intimidating rivals, so don’t be surprised to see a lot of smack talk coming from the New York expansion team.
Silverback gorillas are known for using displays of strength to attract and impress potential females from neighboring groups to join them. This means other teams should watch out for NYS, who may try to poach key players in the expansion draft and engage in trades for stars. Once female gorillas have joined the group, they must work hard to attract the attention of the silverback, especially given there are only fertile for a day or two in a year. This might mean that rookies will have only one shot to prove themselves to the New York leadership and that it might take significant effort to be heard over the infighting of the many alphas. Each gorilla pregnancy results in the birth of only one child, and each female is likely to give birth to only one baby every four to six years and only three or four over her entire lifetime. This might suggest that users recruited to the team will stay for a while rather than trying to leave during free agency. All of this makes it more likely that New York will have a closed locker room and may be selective in which prospects they invite to join.
Finally, since gorillas can breed year round, we might expect consistency in New York’s play and team dynamics across seasons. This is not likely to be the case for the other expansion team, the Berlin Fire Salamanders. Since these creatures have specific mating seasons, we might expect to see this team be streakier in its performance. What else might we learn about this other new animal addition to the league?
Berlin Fire Salamanders:
Male fire salamanders with vivid coloration have a better chance of reproducing, so we may expect some colorful characters within the Berlin locker room. Fire salamanders are one of only two species of salamander to give birth to live young; fertilized eggs develop over a 2-5 month gestation period during which time the female usually hibernates. This suggests that Berlin may prefer to leave their rookies in the DSFL for a few seasons after the draft to let them develop fully before bringing them onto the ISFL team. This doesn’t bode well for their first years as an expansion team when they don’t have the luxury of leaving rookies to fully develop. After the fire salamander gestation period, a large brood of 20-75 fully developed larvae are born and must live in an aquatic environment for 3-5 months before undergoing metamorphosis to be a terrestrial organism. This might suggest that the team will have an open locker room, inviting large cohorts of rookies each year to explore their team (with plenty of turnover). It also might suggest one potential strategy for early success in the league: drafting players from aquatic teams in the expansion draft (e.g., the Sarasota Sailfish and Honolulu Hahalua in the ISFL and the Norfolk Seawolves in the DSFL) and helping them change positions or “metamorphosize” to become a key member of the early expansion team.
Wrapping it all up, it looks like the New York Silverbacks may be better set-up to make a quick impact on the league as they attract key players from other teams through the expansion draft and displays of strength. Their locker room is likely to be full of drama with so many alpha males in one group, so if you are lucky enough to get invited it should be entertaining to follow the trash talk amongst themselves and with rival teams. And as staring is considered a brazenly flirtatious act among gorillas, I fully expect the :eyes: emote to feature prominently in the New York discord. On the other hand, the Berlin Fire Salamanders will likely need some time to come into their own. They are likely to bring in a lot of player interest into their open, welcoming, and vibrant locker room, but their players will likely need more time to mature into their own before they dazzle the league with their streaks of success.
Sources:
Nature on PBS. (2013). “Gorilla Mating Games.” Love in the Animal Kingdom series. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3431b8twU-U
BioWeb, University of Wisconsin. (2008). “Fire Salamander: Reproduction” http://bioweb.uwlax.edu/bio203/s2013/sto...uction.htm
