News from the Natural World: The Mata Mata has won the worlds greatest smile competition.
In a shocking world first, a non-human has won the worlds greatest smile competition. The worlds greatest smile competition is one of the biggest sporting events on the human calendar. People from all corners of the globe come together to compete in a huge avalanche of smugness. Each of them aiming to be crowned the champion smiler. For years the humans had excluded all other species from the competition and only allowed their own to enter. But many of the animal kingdoms famous smilers had been lobbying for years to join the competition to no avail. This year the humans finally caved in and let animals enter. But there was one animal that all the others knew had a real chance of beating the humans… the Mata Mata.
The Mata Mata turtle lives in South America and is well known for its camouflage. This allows it to blend in effortlessly with the plant detritus, rocks and algae of its freshwater homes. Also, it has a bark-like knobby shell and a long broad sturdy neck that supports its large wedge-shaped head. In addition, the Mata Mata is known for its odd feeding behaviour. They lurk at the bottom of murky pools, waiting for a fish to swim by then lunge forward open their mouth and suck the prey in like a vacuum. But these charismatic little reptiles are most famous for their show-stopping ear to ear smile.
Mata Mata has the greatest smile of all
The Mata Mata have a truly show stopping grin. Marvin was the greatest smiler among all the turtles, his smile was so wide that it was said to resemble a duel rainbow with both ends leading to a pot of gold. Marvin entered the worlds greatest smile competition and scored an unprecedented world first. Not only did he score a perfect 10 in every single round but he became the first ever non human to win the competition. He stormed the judges scorecard and the animal kingdom rejoiced. However, the famous smile was about to get Marvin and his Mata Mata kin into dangerous waters.